A Murder On A Mystery Cruise
by Where's Beckett
Summary: Part 4 Fourth in the, A Murder In A ..." series. Richard Castle is invited to be the host writer on a mystery tour. Naturally some one has to die. Someone always has to die. Oh I just quoted Dunn, sorry. I still like to have some fun and humor and love and angst
1. Chapter 1

**After much meditation (and re-watching the older seasons) I have found the inspiration to re post this story and finish writing it**

 **I have decided to NOT watch season 8 as it is a total disaster and destroys the show.  
So if by accident I use any canon now, it will be by accident**

* * *

 **To restate all the rules once again**

 **1\. I do not own or rent Castle or any of the players. I do not have a lease with option to buy. They are the**  
 **exclusive property of ABC/Disney**

 **2\. My stories are Alternate Universe. That means I take the legend and back story and do my own thing**  
 **Do not say I did something different from what was on the show. I don't do canon. I leave that to the real writers**

 **3\. This is the fourth installment in my "A Murder in the..." series.**  
 **Please read them before reading this one. They will tell you how we got here.**

 **Backdrop... They have been married now for 6 months and are still very much newlyweds**

 **So...Hold on**

 **I did not realize I could recover the old story. Sorry everyone**

* * *

Richard Castle is sitting at the desk in his study looking at his computer screen.

A computer screen filled with letters.

Letters that when connected together form words.

Then these words are placed end to end to form complete sentences

Then, finally, these sentences are turned into paragraphs.

At the end of the day, these letters and words and sentences and paragraphs come together to create complete stories. Stories filled with murder, mayhem, mystery, drama, humor, and now they tell a love story.

Their love story.

The love story that began as an imaginary romance between his imaginary characters, Nikki Heat and her tag along magazine writer but now the imaginary story has emerged from his mind and it has taken on a real life all its own It has taken Nikki and Rook places that even the famous mystery writer never imagined they would travel. At least he did not imagine it could happen until his muse gave her heart to him and now she is his everything, the love of his life and completely into his life.

So he can now tell the love story from a love deep inside of himself

That love story that only existed in Richard Castle's vivid imagination a year ago, now exists in the real world and he only needs to close his eyes and know how much he loves the woman currently in the next room getting dressed for an evening out together.

Tonight's activity is at a formal fund raiser for the mayor's re-election campaign and not just a date, but it a date none the less.

In the past six months, since they both finally realized how much they were destined to be together and gave into those emotions, and connected their lives by getting married, they have spent every possible moment trying to make up for four years of denying what was obviously meant to be between them

In spite of having a head filled with the story he wants to tell about them, that is trying to get out, he knows he needs to stop writing for the evening and get dressed himself, or they will be late to this formal Soiree

Actually it is not uncommon for them to be late to events like this. It seems that they both get easily distracted when they are alone getting dressed for a night on the town. Arriving on time to these social events is not near as interesting to Rick and Kate as spending a few more minutes celebrating their married life together

Rick walks into the dressing room where he finds that Kate has apparently completed putting on what little make up she uses. A little eye shadow and some eye liner, a tiny about of face powder and the rest is the pure beauty that radiates from inside Katherine Beckett-Castle

Kate is looking at herself in the mirror in the dressing area just off the bedroom. When built, this area was originally framed in with a woman in mind but since no woman was worthy of this place in his loft before Kate, the place was waiting for this woman of substance to arrive. It was waiting for her to claim it as hers and hers alone.

After Kate and Rick married and she moved from her old apartment into the loft, he had the dressing area customized specially for her. She had total control of how it was finished out from the hanger bars for her evening dresses. Items that, prior to their marriage, were few and never too fancy, to the more opulent that exist in the room now. Also the shelving designed to hold both tall, high heeled, boots and stilettos to comfortable flats and tennis shoes

Drawers line one wall giving her a place for folded items and those items not requiring a hanger. She now has places for everything. He has made sure every need and every desire of hers is completely fulfilled

Kate looks thru the opening to the many dresses that are now kept here. Most dresses are hers but there are some that originally belonged to her mother. Her dad insisted that Kate take them, and since she and her mother wore the exact same size Kate went ahead and brought them here but has no intention of ever wearing any of them.

But for tonight she glances over to the beautiful new floor length gown hanging on the hook just waiting for her to take it and place it on her body. A gown that he insisted they purchase for this evening's activities. A gown that she would have never selected just for herself, but for his benefit, she is excited about wearing it

Looking back to herself in the mirror she is almost ready to dress and to go out for the evening, she sees a happy satisfied woman looking back.

When he sees her standing at the front of the dressing table unmoving and looking at herself he thinks he sees that she has something on her mind

"Hey love" Castle comments as he enters the room

"Hey babe" she softly responds

He senses there is an unspoken issue in the air "What's wrong?"

Uh. Nothing. Why?" she answers

"I have known you for over four years. Even before we were married I could tell when something is wrong" and he steps up as close behind her as he can and wraps his arms around her waist pulling her into his body

She reaches up and smooths out a small amount of eye shadow on one of her lids before responding "Sometimes I just feel like this is all so…surreal" She turns her smiling face toward her husband "Before you came along these parties were something I would only read about in the Ledger or you talked about when you would come in the next day bragging about who you had brought as your date" using the chance to chide him a tiny bit

Rick thinks carefully before responding to her "Right…and now I can enjoy these parties much more and I really get to brag about who I brought because you are the one I honestly had wanted to be with and now I am"

She closes her eyes and leans into his shoulder "I love you" she says quietly

Castle responds "Back at ya"

After a few moments of silent snuggling Kate finally straightens up and looks at her husband "I guess we better get dressed or we will be late to the mayor's party"

She sees a glint in his eyes and a soft smile turns up on the edge of her lips "We are probably going to be late again…aren't we?"

His eyebrows rise ever so slightly

* * *

The couple's late arrival at the ballroom is documented and photographed by a crowd of photographers and local reporters. Beckett is the center of attention as she exits the town car and they gracefully move toward the entry.

Her black with white layered evening gown dropping from off one shoulder then hugging each curve of her long body flowing all the way to the ground is complimenting Castle's tuxedo making them one of the most handsome couples to have passed the crowd of onlookers this evening.

Kate puts on her best smile as she gracefully glides up the red carpet toward the entrance with her fingers firmly wrapped into the crook of her husband's arm and smiling toward the flashing strobes of the cameras.

But before they can disappear inside the hotel, the last reporter captures them asking for a brief statement from the couple

"Hey Richard Castle! You and Mrs. Castle are here to support the mayor in his re-election campaign. Any comment on the rumors that if the mayor is successful in he re-election that your wife, Detective Beckett, will be promoted to deputy chief?"

"I don't know where you get your information, but if Kate were to be promoted within the department it will be because she earned it through her hard work and talent and not some political payback. The mayor does not work that way…now if you will excuse us" The couple step away and they push their way inside the main doors

After they enter into the relative quiet of the lobby Beckett whispers to Castle "where do they get these questions? Does someone sit around an office dreaming up dumb comments?"

"I think that is probably the case" Rick responds just as he sees someone waiting for their arrival. A woman who he knew could possibly be there, yet he was hoping she would miss this event

"Hello Gina"

"Hello Rick" the blond responds

Kate leans into her husband "And be nice"

"As nice as I can be to her" he whispers back and the couple move on through the crowd .toward his ex wife

"I didn't' know you were a fan of the mayor" Castle comments

"I'm not but this is a great way to network with those in power. Keeps me and my boyfriend Claude Wisdom on everyone's mind" she turns then faces her date "Claude, this is one of my clients, Richard Castle and his wife Kate Beckett. Rick, Kate this is Claude"

Castle reaches out with his free hand and the two men shake hands "So Claude, are you in the publishing business too?"

Gina answers for him "No he is a developer. We met when he came to Black Pawn wanting to buy our building"

"And you didn't sell it to him? I thought you were always looking for a way to make a dollar"

"Funny" she responds sarcastically

"I thought you were going on a vacation promotion tour of some type" Castle comments

"We leave day after tomorrow" Gina answers "I will be gone for a week"

"What was it again?...Oh yeah Black Pawn Mystery Tour?"

"Yes Rick and don't forget. I asked you to go with me and you turned me down"

Kate can feel the muscles in her husband's arm tighten up while he is talking to his ex

"Yes I turned you down since it required me to be away from my wife and be with you for a week on this party"

"You knew it was only a ruse, because Claude agreed to be my escort"

"Well, have fun, Gina and I will see you two later, and nice to meet you Claude" Castle smiles at her and her date then he turns with Kate and they move toward the mayor and his entourage

Beckett leans close to Rick's ear "Gina asked you to be her date for some mystery party?"

"She actually asked me to be her host mystery writer, but it would have meant that I would have been apart from you for a week and there was no way that was going to happen"

Kate pauses a few seconds before speaking "Thank you"

"Always"

* * *

The evening progresses with the usual dinner and drinks interspersed with short fund raising speeches and a silent auction and lots of mingling with important guests

Since his marriage to Kate, there is one thing that has changed drastically in Castle's social life. Since he and Kate got married his wife usually draws more attention than he does at these parties especially with the men. Tonight he watches her being cornered by so many individuals who all want to be in the know about her and her life now that she and Rick are one flesh

He can tell that she seems uncomfortable so Castle steps up to Kate and speaks into the group "Excuse me. Can I steal my wife away?"

The pair step away from the crowd "Thank you Castle" she tells her husband "I felt trapped in there with all those people"

"You looked like you could use rescuing"

"There were so many around me"

"I know. It can be intimidating sometimes"

"Were you surrounded as well?" Kate asks

"No just you"

Kate pulls Rick around the corner and away from the crowd "Were you jealous in there that there were so many people all around me and not you?"

"No?" he responds but it is evident to Kate that he does have feelings about the situation

She leans into his face and touches his cheek softly with her hand "You are too jealous"

"No. Actually I am not".

"You want to keep trying Castle?"

"No actually I am proud to have you as my wife and I am proud you are getting so much attention"

The evening progresses with all the political party members crowding around the mayor along with the invited press asking questions about his future plans for the city if he is successful in his re election

Kate and Rick are fortunate having not encountered his ex-wife slash publisher too many times during the evening but just before the festivities closes she rushes up to the happy couple as they are saying their good byes to the mayor's entourage

"Rick! I need to talk to you. This is real important"

"OK Gina What is it?"

"I need you"

Kate responds "What do you mean? You need him"

"My guest mystery writer, Patterson, has come down with the flu and I need a replacement mystery writer. I need you to go"

"Gina. As I said there is no way I'm going on this tour with you"

"You can bring your wife! It's only a week. I need you Rick. Please…."

Beckett answers the question "I can't be off work for a week Castle"

The mayor interrupts "Kate. This will be a great publicity event to tie with my campaign. I will call the commissioner and set it all up. Anyway I know that you and Rickey have not had a proper honeymoon and this could double as a good time for you two to have a little alone time"

Castel looks at Becket "What do you say?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Just some set up. We should have a nice murder fairly soon**

* * *

Vacation…

That is a foreign word for Katherine Beckett. A word that was used by other people and not by her. It was an action done by others.

Over the last thirteen years, Katherine Becket has never taken more than a few days of vacation back to back. She normally used one or two days when she had business to take care of or taking a little time for her and her dad that they might spend time away together. But before now, Kate Beckett has never had reason or even a desire to be anywhere away from her work for an extended time.

Detective Beckett did not take vacations

How her world has changed

This plan is different. It is not exactly the honeymoon getaway that he wants for her. He promised her that they were going to a romantic secluded tropical island getaway and spend days upon days doing nothing except enjoying the warm sun, the sandy beaches, and the other one's presence.

The only thing different in this is that they are going to go away just not to the deserted island and definitely NOT alone.

Instead of a fast flight from New York to the isolated island, they are going on a ship. A cruise ship sailing at a slow 22 knots. And instead of alone, they would be with 2000 of their closest traveling companions and friends including the members of the mystery club along with a crew running the ship

There would be an island involved, except, instead of being a private island, the island is Puerto Rico.

Not exactly what she wanted but he promised her that there would still be plenty of alone time for just her and him to do whatever honeymooners do.

After finding out that her and Castle were definitely going to host this Mystery Murder club tour she has been getting herself ready. The next two days were filled with locating passports and getting all the travel documents ready so they can leave. The trip technically did not require a passport since all stops are United States Territory but having the document is always a good idea. Fortunately she did update her passport soon after they got married with her new name so she her paperwork is ready for them to go.

The schedule for the event is part of a Black Pawn Mystery Tour. It begins in Florida. This leg of the event is a cruise out of Orlando and then thru the Caribbean with the first stop in St. Thomas in the US Virgin islands then the last leg to Puerto Rico.

Now for her next task, she needs to pack for the trip. As she stares at the back placed on the stand in the closet she is staring at her clothes. As thought about before, she has not taken an extended trip in over a dozen years. Her mind is trying to decide exactly what she must pack

First she looks at her outer wear. They will be on a ship in a very warm climate, so shorts, tank tops and light blouses are acceptable. She does feel that at least one or two dressier shirt and slacks would be needed.

Shoes… Sandals and flip flops are the required footwear needed aboard ship. But she does think at least one stylish pair of high heels and another, lower heels would be appropriate. None of her favorite stiletto boots will be joining in on this trip however

She moves over to her lingerie dresser and slides open the drawers. Carefully placed here are all the special items she has purchased over the last few months to be used on her husband in keeping his interest alive. Looking at the items in storage, she wonders if how much, if any, of these things have been needed. Especially when she does wear them, they do not stay on her very long.

He told her once that she could wear a flannel floor gown and he would still get excited in the same way just thinking about her

A warm feeling rushes up her body because she knows that he really does care about her. All of her and not how she dresses for him although she enjoys the outcome herself

Once she has finished packing all the necessary items she looks back to the itinerary that her husband was given for the trip. This is when it hits her.

There is a formal night. A formal night where she needs to wear a nice, special dress. Gloom rushes over her. She needs a dress for the formal evening. She walks into her closet and begins going over all the dresses there on the hangers.

The dress she wore to his Derrick Storm reading when they first met…no  
The dress Castle bought her for the undercover charity ball right after they met…no  
The dress she wore to the Nikki Heat release party…no  
The dress she wore to the dinner with the fireman…no  
The dress she wore to the male strip club…no

Her eyes travel on down the line to the group of dresses that were her mother's dresses. Her mother was a beautiful woman. Built exactly like Kate. Long legs on a slender frame. A sleek woman who would capture the room from the moment she stepped in. And now Kate possessed all the wonderful attire her mother once wore

But Kate is not feeling like she should even consider taking any of them for her trip. Her mother was always such a beauty when she and Kate's dad went out, she is feeling like she would be disrespecting her mom.

She still walks down the line looking at these dresses then stops abruptly at one. It just seems to catch Kate and will not let her go. She reaches out and takes the dress off the rod and holds it up in front of herself then turns to where she can look at herself in the full length mirror on the wall. She sees just how striking this dress will be once she puts it on

She closes her eyes and can swear she hears her mother's voice saying to her

'Katie. This dress is perfect. You are beautiful. You will take this one'

* * *

All the arrangements for the trip were handled by Black Pawn and the cruise line. Rick did, however, had their seats upgraded from business class to first class but otherwise they were traveling just like any other guest on the cruise.

After checking their bags at the ticket counter at LaGuardia they were told the cruise line took care of everything else and the next time they would see their bags would be in their stateroom aboard the ship

Once settled in their comfortable seats on the plane, Kate and Rick were able to discuss more about the upcoming events

"Castle, I have never been on a cruise before. Mom and dad talked about going on one after I graduated from Stanford but, of course, that never happened. Everyone I ever spoke to about it told me it is a lot of fun, so what can I expect?"

Rick has taken Kate's hand into his own lap and intertwined their fingers "First off, all the food and entertainment on the ship is free. Alcohol and soft drinks are extra but all the meals are included. And let me tell you the food is unbelievable. Each evening meal is special in itself. There are stores on the main level where you can buy gifts and clothes. Even jewelry"

Looking deeply into his eyes "Do they have any special items? You know, about more personal, intimate items?" she chides him a little. She loves to watch him go slack jaw when she does this. She reaches out her hand and pushes his mouth closed "Looks like we need to talk more about that later"

He mumbles something in response

She snaps him out of his thoughts "Castle"

"Yeah?"

"Tell me about this Murder Mystery Club thing?"

Regaining his composure "This is a club that formed a few years ago. Black Pawn along with a couple of other publishing houses sponsor it. They have a murder mystery get together about twice a year. Sometimes at a hotel or vacation getaway destination. This time it is this cruise"

"So what? They meet and visit and compare stories and get to visit with a famous author…" she wraps her fingers around Rick's arm "like my husband?"

"Actually there is a murder that they all get to solve. They split up in teams, usually no more than 6 or 8 to a team. The host sets up a murder story and they try to figure out who did it and why"

"How do they do the story?"

"It is set up like a Alfred Hitchcock movie. Actors play guests who are invited to a mansion for dinner. During the course of the evening meal a storm knocks out the lights and when the lights come back on then someone is found murdered"

"Is there a prize?" Kate asks

"I think they have a cash prize. It is not much. Doesn't even pay for the trip, but everyone has a fun time"

"So why are you here?"

"They always have a guest mystery writer as the host. I did it several years ago"

Kate continues her questions "Do you know all the story of who dies and who the killer is?"

"Not everything. Gina e-mailed me the script I am to read. It tells me who will be the victim but even I don't know who the killer is or how the victim is killed. I won't know until I am given an envelope after the game starts"

He looks at Kate who has still has a question written all over her face "So did you do this more than once?" she asks

"They asked me to go last year but I did not want to do it then"

"Why not?" she truly wonders

"It would have taken me away from you"

"We weren't…together then"

Castle smiles at Kate and responds softly "Weren't we?"

She lays her head over on him. He leans over and kisses her hair. It is too bad he doesn't see the happiness spreading on her face

* * *

Upon arrival at Orlando airport they were picked up by the cruise line and shuttled to the ship where they received VIP boarding. Once they stepped across the gangway and boarded the ship they were greeted by one of the staff and escorted to their room

Kate has been treated like a queen all day today and she is not wanting it to end. This entire time she is thinking that if this is not the special vacation planned by Castle then the real one will be unbelievable

When they finally arrive at their cabin the escort advises them that their cabin steward will be coming by shortly and that the bags should arrive shortly. She then leaves them alone,

Castle and Beckett explore the room. It is larger than she expected. Since he was the honored host for the mystery tour they were given a larger stateroom with a full balcony and separate seating area and larger bathroom complete with a wet bar

The pair open the door and walk out to the balcony where she can feel the warm sea air across her face Kate wraps her arms around her husband "WOW!" and she gives him a sweet kiss

"You know how to get a girl in the mood, don't you?"

"That was not planned but I will enjoy the benefits" He pulls her to his chest

A knock on the door interrupts their brief make out session

A tall, dark haired man wearing a stewards uniform is standing outside "Mr. Castle, Ms. Beckett, I am Carlos and I am your cabin steward. I will be taking care of your room during the cruise. I have brought fresh towels for the bathroom"

After completing the briefing about the features of the ship, Carlos tells the couple that a buffet is set up on the fifth deck with some light afternoon fare and will be available until sailing.

After thanking the steward Kate and Rick leave the room and head down to the lunch area. As soon as they walk out to the deck and turn toward the lunch bar they encounter a table filled with women. This is when several familiar voices call out

"HEY RICK!"

Sitting together are several woman Castle recognizes from the Hamptons. Including

Joy Mason and Sara Green

"Hello Ladies" Castle speaks to the group

He can feel his wife's nails digging into his arm

* * *

 **I know Marlow once said that them being together did not mean they could go on a Princess Cruise and solve a murder, but he is not in charge any more**


	3. Chapter 3

Standing on the deck just outside the buffet line, Castle and Beckett have been greeted by a table full of woman from The Hamptons including his next door neighbor and a few other neighbors he has known for several years. Some of these women are just good friends and neighbors.

Some are women he actually went out on a date or two with years ago

Some had wanted to be more than just friends including one specific woman who has been a constant subject of conversation between Kate and Rick and even a few laughs

Triple B

Rick knows that Kate is aware of his past with some of these ladies, but she is not completely knowledgeable as to how close her husband was with some of these women from his past.

Not that he has hidden this from his lovely wife, just it was decided a long time ago that the past was in the past and it had no bearing on the love they now have for each other. And that they both have silently agreed to leave their respective histories closed

Castle hopes that now is not a time to have a discussion about awaking that past but the current situation might make that conversation come closer to the surface but that is something he wants left alone

He hopes that she is comfortable enough and that she knows just how deep his love for her is. Otherwise he knows this night will not end well if she asks and he does not come completely open with his lovely wife about his history so returning to the situation at hand

"Hello ladies" Castle responds to the opening comment from the table

Kate is holding on to Rick's arm and watching the conversation beginning to unfold

"Hey Rick" Sara Green speaks for the group "We heard that you were going to be our host and the replacement for James Patterson"

While the women are all talking to her husband, Kate has made sure there is no doubt about who he belongs to. She has kept her hand wrapped firmly around his arm and as much of the rest of her body pressed firmly into his side.

In response to her actions of possession, he pulls his arm from her grip then wraps it around her waist and holds her tight to his side. She moves to wrap both arms around him

"Yes. It was unfortunate for him but a nice break for me and Kate" making sure she could feel his hand as he gently caresses her back

"So Rick" Sara Green begins "Tell us about what is going to happen tomorrow night? Who gets killed and who did it"

"Well, you know as much as I do Sara. We will have a story and a murder that you will have to solve. I don't know who the victim is or who will be the killer"

Joy turns toward Rick and Kate pushing her chest out a little and obviously flaunting her assets then continues "OH, come on Rickey. You are our neighbor and friend. Can't you give us a little secret or two?"

Kate looks at Rick's face and can tell exactly where his eyes are focused. She will definitely use that against him later

"Sorry ladies but I really don't know myself"

Sara remarks "OH come on. Gina is your ex wife and publisher. You have an inside tract on the story"

Castle can feel Kate pull tighter around him when the ex wife comment is made "No I really don't know. That is one of the rules. I will get the script tomorrow night just minutes before the show starts. I will only have time to proof read it once before I go on stage and give everyone the story"

"OH Phooey" is the response from the table

"Listen ladies, my wife an I need to go grab a bite so we will take our leave now. See all of you tomorrow night in the main theatre"

Kate waves at the table "bye" and receives a response in kind from all the woman

The couple turns to walk away from the group and Kate has to release the two armed grip on him but he has not removed his arm from around his wife

"well Castle how did you like the show?" she teases a little

"UH? What show are you talking about?"

"The boobs that were just about to pop out of that very tight blouse"

"I didn't notice" he responds as they keep walking toward the serving line

She reaches across his chest and pokes him "SURE, you didn't!"

"No Really!"

"Then what were you staring at?"

They are almost at the beginning of the serving line

"I was looking at her plate. The size of the shrimp on her plate"

"She had a piece of chicken on her plate"

"Oh. That explains why the breast was so big." Castle reaches out to get a tray and hands it to Kate

When he realizes what he just said he looks at Kate "..uh mean shrimp" He can see in her eyes that he is in big trouble

She leans into his ear and whispers something that causes him to almost choke "We will discuss the size of women's breasts…later"

When Castle finally recovers enough the, two select some lite faire from the buffet and sit at a table near a window looking at the dock.

During their snacks, they have been listening to the announcements form the bridge and the loading gantry about events happening during the boarding time.

Just as they finish the meal, the announcement comes over the PA telling the passengers to return to their cabins and retrieve their life preservers and report to their muster stations for the required life boat drill before sailing.

Castle and Beckett go to their cabin and get their vests and are at the required location as indicated on the emergency plaque on their cabin door when the alarm sounds beginning the drill.

Kate is taking in every moment of the experience since this is a first for her. Castle has done this on more than one occasion so it is old hat and much less interesting to him so he spends his time watching his wife

After several minutes spent with the crew verifying everyone is present and accounted for, they are released to return the vest to the cabins and are free to roam the ship

* * *

After returning to their cabin and storing their life vests back in the storage space, Castle and Beckett are headed out to the dock side railing of the ship to watch the closing of the doors and the cast off of the lines securing them to the pier.

They stand at the rail like the stars of the movie about the ill fated Titanic with her against the rail and him behind her holding the love of his life as they watch the dry land move farther and father away

She closes her eyes and saviors the feeling of her husband holding her gently with the breeze in her face.

He closes his eyes cherishing the feeling of having her here against his chest

Once they have moved a substantial distance from the docks these two move out to start to explore the other decks and places of the ship. They plan to spend a large part of the afternoon going from deck to deck, Level to level, Fore and aft trying to locate all the interesting places in their current home away from home. And at the same time having some fun in their exploring the current habitat.

They have already located the shops on the promenade deck. They passed them on the way to their state room when they first boarded.

They found the cigar bar just down from the casino along with a lounge called The Wine Cellar. They definitely plan to spend some time at this location checking out some new and different selections

There is a very elegant steakhouse aboard. This restaurant is not included in the cruise, but that will not be stopping them from dining there at some point in the trip. They also locate an old fashioned hamburger and soda shop along with a pizza shop ans sushi bar.

They have turned and walked through the now quiet casino. It is currently closed and will stay that way until they reach open international waters. The ship is not allowed to have its games of chance open while being inside the territorial limits of the United States. They will definitely be returning here later.

Just outside the casino is a long corridor lined with paintings with notes that they will be for sale before the cruise is over

As they arrive at each deck they look at the corresponding map to find any and all places of interest for them to visit before they head off later to the main dining room for their first sit down evening meal.

They arrive on the main deck with the corridor to the outside deck where they walk out of the protection of the ship's hull and exit into the onslaught of bright ocean sun. The light is almost blinding. Castle is so pleased that they made sure to bring sun glasses and proper sun screen. Since neither one of them is accustomed to this much sunlight unprotected. He believes caution is well advised.

He certainly does not want either of them to get so much sun that they end up spending their entire time in their room miserable with a serious sunburn. That would definitely detract from the activities they are both planning to be involved in during their in-cabin time

As they cross the deck area, Kate takes particular note of how much skin was already on display in the lounge chairs and how much attention Castle was giving it. She leans over at her husband "Go ahead a look"

To which he answers "Look at what?" She gives him one of her custom eye rolls

After crossing the sun deck of the ship and passing all the bronzed bodies lounging around wanting to get their sunburn the two of them re-enter the protected corridors of the ship.

They stop again and look at the map and see that there is an upper level lounge that is open only in the later evenings and only for the adults on board. They follow the map and find a much smaller, secluded staircase leading to the bar. The staircase is not as broad as the main wider steps.

As they begin to climb up, Kate is directly in front of Rick and he can't help but look straight ahead, directly at her legs and rear, He is reminded of a staircase in a bomb shelter several months before. A staircase that Kate walked up in front of him but at that time, he had to fight his feelings while mistakenly thinking she was still with Josh.

Now, as she climbs the steps in front of him, he still enjoys the view he has of this woman who wears his ring and shares his name and is the reason none of the half dressed ladies on the deck meant anything.

Having her in front of him is just too tempting so he plans to reach out and grab a little of his wife. This is when they reach a landing and she stops and looks back at her husband. She sees him reaching out with his hands and it is obvious exactly where his eyes are locked at this moment and they are definitely NOT looking at the steps. Never missing an opportunity to dig at her guy she puts on her best stern detective voice

"HEY Mister! "Get your eyes back in their sockets. Just who do you think you are and what do you think you're looking at? And what are you planning on going with your hands?"

This does catch Castle off guard for just a moment "I…uh…well…uh…I…" he finally stops blabbering then responds "I was just looking at something I like very much"

"Oh it that so?" she smiles at him as she pulls him up to her level. Since the two of them are alone in this isolated corridor "And what do you plan to do about that?"

He wraps his arms around her waist and then they start to travel a little south "This" and they join in on a kiss that quickly becomes too much for this cramped stairway

He steps down and begins to pull her toward the main corridor and the main stairway leading down two decks and, eventually, through the long corridor to their private cabin.

These two are almost running by the time they arrive at their door. He pulls back from her just long enough to reach into his pocket to pull out the key He fumbles trying to get the card in the lock without much success. Kate, in frustration, finally takes it out of his hand, turns it around correctly and slides it into the lock releasing the door and they stumble in.

Once inside she has the wits about her to put the 'Do Not Disturb' sign on the handle before she closes the cabin door


	4. Chapter 4

The low hum of the ship that seems to emanate from every bulkhead wall surrounding them makes this soothing sound seem to come from every corner of the room and creates an atmosphere perfect for a nap. It is difficult to not be lulled into another dream world by the sound

And naps are nice. They are so very nice.

Historically naps were something that little children were forced to do every afternoon by their parents but children were never interested in stopping their play time and take a nap

It is interesting that, after becoming adults, naps take on an entirely different place in our life. Maybe a person stayed up very late the night before or are planning on staying out late on the day or you might just be really tired after an extremely busy and stressful day

OR…there are times when the nap is done for other reasons entirely.

Today's nap was for one of those OTHER reasons

Katherine Beckett-Castle's eyes begin to drift open and she finds herself looking in the general direction of the sliding balcony doors of their cabin. It is still daylight outside but it does seem that the day may be reaching its end and nighttime is approaching.

She is covered only by the bed sheet and she knows that otherwise there is no other clothing adorning her body. But that is not an issue. There is a good reason she is here in this situation and that situation is directly behind her

She can feel her husband is at her back with his arm gently draped over her abdomen and his head close behind hers with his nose pressed into her hair.

She begins thinking about another couple. Her mother and her father. She had found out that after she left for Stanford, they took a short cruise. Did they do this on their cruise? Curl up next to one another? Nude? Did her parents lie in bed together after a wonderful romantic session of love making? Were they as much in love as her and Rick?

Of Course they did. Of course they were. They were so much in love.

And now Kate is too. She looks at the table and the clock. This is when she realizes they need to get ready for dinner

She looks back over her shoulder as she tries to slide out from the sheets but she feels his arm tighten around her

A low voice speaks from behind her "Don't get up…stay in bed"

"Bebe, it is after 5:00 and we need to get ready for dinner. Our seating is at 7:00 in the main dining room"

She can feel his head lift up as he looks at the clock on the side table. She feels him drop back on the pillow and a "hum" comes from his mouth

"OH Alright" he pulls her back to his side "but I get one more kiss before we jump in the shower"

She rolls back to him and nibbles on his lower lip. "OK there you go. Now get up and let me get my shower then you can grab one after I finish"

"How about we save water and…"

She places her fingers on his mouth and interrupts him. "We can not take a shower together! Have you seen the size of that stall? A telephone booth at Grand Central is almost as large as that entire bathroom. You and I could not get into that shower together"

"I'm willing to try" he smiles at her

"If you and I were even able to get in the stall, we probably would get stuck there. And then the ship's crew would have to come rescue us…you… me both naked, stuck together. A large group of big burley men from the ship's engineering department trying to get us out. . and after you and I getting caught by our entire family, having to be extracted by all those people…" she pauses for effect "Is that what you really want happening?"

She can see that he had not thought about that "uh…no?"

She leans back down to him and places a kiss on his cheek "good choice" and she moves into the bathroom and into the shower.

After Kate finishes, Rick follows. The two are dressed and ready for dinner just at the perfect time

When the elevator arrives and they step in Castle reaches around and pulls her to him and just as the door closes Kate's voice can be heard 'Castle! Stop that'

The couple has reached the entry to the main dining room just before the second seating for the night opens. Castle has dressed in slacks and a button down shirt. Beckett decided on a nice more dressy slacks and multi colored blouse. There are several attendants acting as hosts. Since this is the first evening for formal meals and no one knows where their respective tables are located, they are escorted to their group.

Once Kate and Rick arrive at their table and are seated, a waiter quickly arrives to introduce himself and offers the couple some drinks. While they are waiting for their drink orders to be filled, an assistant server fills the water glasses and offers coffee and tea to the couple.

Within minutes the server returns with two glasses of wine and asks if the couple need anything else while they are waiting for the other dinner guests assigned to their table to arrive.

"We are great, thank you" Rick tells the server and the man steps away until the next couple arrives.

Kate picks up her glass and looks at her husband. "So far, this has been a great honeymoon"

His mouth responds before his brain engages "The best one I have ever had"

She gives him the special Beckett glare "are you comparing me to your other two wives?"

"No…I …that is not…I mean…it wasn't…I"

She reaches over to takes his hand "Hey…"

He looks up to her then she speaks "I love you"

"Back at ya"

They are so involved in eye sex they almost miss the arrival of the next two couples joining them at the table

The first are an older couple, probably in their early sixties Zak and Jean Ferris from Detroit both retired from a major car manufacturer there

Moments later the second couple arrives. Mike and Margie Murphy. He owns a plumbing supply company in Alabama

The three couples are exchanging greetings when the last pair steps in

John Webb and his daughter Tonya He is retired from the post office and she is the owner of a daycare in Kansas City, Kansas

The table is now complete and the server has returned to take the orders for the meal. They all start off with appetizers then soup or salad. The main entrée selections tonight are lobster tail or prime rib served with a side of steamed vegetables.

During the course of the meal the couples all get to tell about their lives with Rick and Kate waiting until the last.

Castle starts up "So I am Richard Castle and this lovely woman to my right is my wife Katherine Beckett-Castle. She is a detective with the New York police department"

That brings comments from all around the table. The usual questions begin to fly 'what kind of a detective?' 'How long have you been a detective?' 'What is the worst case you have ever been on?' and so on the questions continue through dessert

After fielding the barrage of questions, Kate finally comments to move the questions off of her "And my husband is a mystery writer. He wrote the Derrick Storm books"

"That is where I heard your name before" Margie Murphy comments "I love your books. Wait you also wrote the Nikki Heat books" she then looks at Kate "you are Nikki. Aren't you?"

Beckett looks at Castle then back "After following me around for a year, he modeled her after me. Yes"

Margie smiles at Kate "And you married him"

Kate smiles and then responds "We got married six months ago and we here on our honeymoon actually"

"Congratulations" everyone at the table comments

The conversations move around to each person's family and business until the meal is finally finished. As they all get up to leave.

The four couples walk out of the dining room and are in the elevator lobby waiting for the next car to arrive when a voice rises above the crowd

"BEX?" A man's voice comes from the group in front of them closest to the elevator doors. "KATE BECKETT!"

Kate looks at the man first as if she has no idea who this might be then suddenly her eyes go wide "BRETT? BRETT EDWARDS? Is that you?"

A very tall, lean, dark haired, well groomed, well tanned, and extremely handsome man steps out from the midst of the assembled throng

"In the flesh" He answers and then reaches out to wrap his arms around Kate and place her in a bear hug. As this man is several inches taller than Kate she is lifted off the deck by his embrace

"Wow. Wow, Brett Edwards" Kate stutters a little saying his name "How long has it been?"

"Our freshman year at Bed-Sty High School…what is that? 15 or 18 years ago"

Castle is watching this event every carefully. His wife seems to have just re connected with some handsome ruggedly handsome male from her past. Rick starts to wonder if he is from her kinky past? Maybe he was the grunge rocker who has moved up to classical music and fitted suits

Or worse His heart sinks 'Is he her FIRST?' Maybe the first guy she moved in with?

Rick suddenly feels a tinge of jealousy cross his heart. He has always known that Kate had history. She eluded to it on several occasions but that was before he and her had became MORE. In the past she had used her history as a tease against him so many times. She would dangle that carrot in front of Castle and watch him try to bite and enjoy his reaction.

Castle often wondered just how much history there actually was but he tried not to bring it up or even let it stay in his mind very long.

But now. Today a very good looking guy has shown up and it is very evident that Kate knew him…knew him very well as she seems to be very, very nervous about this meeting

She looks at her husband "Rick, this is Brett Edwards. We went to high school together"

She turns toward the man who comments "we did more than just go to high school together"

"UH…Brett, this is Richard Castle…" Kate starts the introductions but she seems a little uncomfortable introducing this man to Rick

"The mystery writer Richard Castle? The host of the Murder Mystery Cruise?"

Castle reaches out his hand "Yes. That would be me"

"I have read all your books. I am a giant fan especially a fan of Nikki Heat"

"Well thank you…" and in Castle's mind he is thinking 'and just how well did you know Kate and what did you do in high school together? And what did you and Nikki do before I met her?'

* * *

 **So. Is Kate the only one with something to be jealous about from the other's past?**


	5. Chapter 5

**WOW!**  
 **I had no idea how many people would jump to the wrong conclusion about this guy**

 **There is a whole lot more to him and you will find out about him later. So I thought I might need to cool everyone down a bit**

 **Everyone...Remain Calm**

* * *

The sound of the elevator bell takes Brett's attention away from the conversation and then he turns back to Kate "We must get together before the cruise is over and catch up on old times" then he looks at Rick "and I want to know everything about you and Mr. Castle here" pointing at Rick

"Yes we should" Beckett responds with a tiny amount of glee in her voice and she gives the man another fast hug just as he turns and walks into the elevator cab and disappears when the doors close.

Castle has watched this carefully and notices that this man did not seem to be with anyone else as he is not talking to anyone when the elevator doors close

Kate turns back to her husband and can see a very large question is residing on his face

In trying to sidestep the next conversation, her opening comments are filled with stuttering "Brett and I went to high school together, well for one year, anyway" she puts the comment out and she seems to not want to say more, at least at this moment and fortunately for her, the completion of her statement is interrupted by the arrival of another elevator heading their direction. The two of them move with the large crown inside the car and the doors close with no more explanation about the visit from the man from Kate's past.

With the couple standing inside the elevator waiting for it to arrive on the theatre level and the magic show they are preparing to attend, the silence was deafening

Most of the crowd around them was also going to see the magician, Conrad Morton in the small theatre tonight. He is being touted as the next Chris Angel so everyone is wanting to see his show

On arrival at the theater level the group moves in mass toward the entrance

When they pass the entrance to the theatre they go looking for some seats. They are looking for a small table made for only two guests so they can be alone. Once they find a table that suits their need Kate is trying to move the conversation away from this formerly unknown man. The man at least unknown to Castle.

Knowing this is creating some amount of tension she leans over to Rick's shoulder and puts her head to his arm "We went to school together. Only one year. He moved away after our freshman year. There really is not much more to the story"

There is no response from Castle

She looks at his face "Rick, I love you"

He continues looking straight ahead "I love you, too"

"That didn't sound very convincing"

"I'm sorry Kate. He just…he acted like there was way more to this story than was said" then he looks at his wife "and even I will admit he is a good looking guy"

He sees her lips turn up ever so gently "Well there was something that happened…it was a first for me. Well it was for him too"

She feels a deep breath being drawn in by her husband like she is preparing for some devastating news

"It was embarrassing…for both of us"

This statement does not help the situation. Castle looks at Kate just as she answers the question that is dragging down his heart

"He was the first boy I ever kissed"

"That was…he was…you and him? That's all?"

Kate leans to his cheek and gives him a much firmer and longer kiss

"It was a first kiss for both of us and neither one of us knew what we were doing"

She hums a tiny bit "That can be awkward" she can see a smile trying to lift from his face

Kate actually giggles "It was mortifying actually. I had no idea how to kiss! He didn't know how to kiss! I did not know there was the possibility of tongue being involved"

"OH" he responds

"We had snuck off and skipped a class and were trying to hide under the bleachers at the football field" she pauses a brief moment "I do have to admit we were groping at each other and neither one of us knew what to do and we started giggling and one of the coaches heard us and came looking to see what was going on"

"And did you get caught by the coach?"

"No we got away before he saw who we were"

"So did you keep dating him?"

Kate's face goes dark "No, it all went bad"

"Bad how?"

"You remember my friend Maddie Queller?"

"The owner of Q3? OH! I do remember her quite well and I remember what she said to you in the interrogation room when you brought her in for questioning"

Beckett remembers also and pokes Rick's arm

"What does she have to do with him?" Castle asks

"Be both liked the same guy She wanted to go out with him and so did I and then she found out that Brett and me had almost been caught making out under the track and field grandstands" Kate drops her eyes toward the floor "It almost cost me my best friend. She was mad at me for weeks. We decided we could not both like the same boy and I didn't want to loose Maddie as my friend so I didn't see him after that"

"OK" Castle comments softly

"Anyway, he moved away after that year and I have not seen him since…until today"

She sees relief come over Rick's face

"Is he the guy I can thank for teaching you how to kiss because you are one fantastic kisser" she can see relief and his love shining back into his eyes again

"Oh you think I am a good kisser?" she leans up and kisses his cheek

Rick turns to kiss her "You are the best"

"Is that compared to your other two wives?"

"There is nothing to compare. I love you Katherine. I will love you always…"

She leans in to his ear "Back at ya"

Just then the lights dim and the cruise director walks onto the stage. She tells the crowd about the act coming on. His name is Conrad Morton. She describes how he has opened in Vegas for other acts and has traveled all over the world showing his talent and is quickly moving up in the ranks of the great magicians. She turns the attention to the main curtain and he enters the stage

The magic show begins and the program is everything that was promised. The magician performs all the usual tricks including zig zag box. Iron maiden. Saw the woman in half.

This particular show is also filled with fun and sight gags

The fun of this magic show is the performer injects moments of comedy into his act. In this case when he tries to perform the rabbit in the hat trick, the rabbit is not interested in being pulled out of the hat

He started with the usual top hat with nothing inside. Then he places the hat on the table and reaches in and tries to bring the bunny out but the rabbit does not appear. He pick up the hat and again looks to see that it is empty and places it once more on the table. Again he tries to pull the rabbit out and all that appears in his hands are the ears. He pretends to be embarrassed about the rabbit, he moves on to other tricks

After he walks away from the table a rabbit pops its head out of the hat and looks around. The audience laughs about the appearance of the furry creature.

When Conrad sees the bunny appear he quickly rushes back to the table and tries to remove the creature with no success. Again picking up the hat and finding it empty

During the course of the evening that event occurs multiple times much to the pleasure of the audience.

As Conrad performs his tricks Castle and Beckett banter back and forth about how he is performing his tricks. Their minds both go back to the case of the murdered magician and how they both had a little amateur magician in their blood.

When the lights finally go up and the audience begin filing out of the auditorium Rack and Kate are still laughing about the show and how much they enjoyed it neither ever figuring out how he did the trick with the rabbit.

When they finally arrive back into their room Rick notices that Kate had brought her drink glass with her. After the room door closes for the night Castle looks at the glass

"Why did you bring the glass back to the room?"

She looks at the container holding nothing except ice cubes. The rattles it around in front of Castle's face "I wanted to see if I can still do that little magic trick that involves ice…"

* * *

See. I like fun


	6. Chapter 6

**I am glad the last chapter calmed everyone down  
**

* * *

The aroma of freshly brewed coffee is a very nice wake up call. She opens her eyes and finds another set of eyes looking into hers

"Good morning babe" she softly speaks

"Good morning yourself" Rick replies, and then raises a cup near her nose giving her the reason for the attack on her nasal senses "Coffee?"

"Hum…" she sits up in the bed the takes the hot drink from his hands "Thank you"

"Always" Castle settles with his own cup "Sleep well?"

After a sip, a hum comes from deep inside her "very well" she takes another sip then looks around the room "I don't remember seeing a coffee brewer anywhere in the cabin"

"The nice thing about a cruise ship. It is like a five star hotel except on steroids. You can get anything you want delivered to your room at any time, day or night. I called up and Carlos had us a nice coffee service at the door about ten minutes later"

She inhales a nice draw of delicious aroma before replying "Carlos? You already on a first name basis with the cabin steward?"

"Actually yes. He is a really nice guy. He is originally from Puerto Rico. His family moved to New York when he was ten. He said that the schools were better than back home. His parents still live in the city but he still has a lot of family on the island. So working this cruise is perfect for him. Every two weeks he sees family when they dock in San Juan"

"That must make it nice for him and his family"

"Carlos said since this is a US flagged ship almost all of the staff and crew are from North America and there is a great comradery among the staff"

"And what did you two do? Sit around talking while I was lying here naked in bed?"

"Yeah. Is that a problem?" she can see his little teasing glint in his eyes

"We stayed in the living room and I closed the door. So, yes my love, I still protected your modesty"

She takes another sip of morning caffeine "Can we go ahead and go get some breakfast? I am starving. We burned a lot of calories last night"

He face is covered in a devilish grin "Yes you did"

Of course, he gets a poke for that comment

"Get dressed and we can go to the buffet. It is casual and relaxing. Then we can go see what activities are going on today. We are at sea still until late tomorrow, and until our murder mystery show tonight we can go to the casino and gamble and they have some other games happening. Whatever you want"

She throws back the covers and starts to get up. She watches, with glee, the affect she still has on her man. Looking back at his wide open eyes "GO! Get ready. I am starving"

He mutter out "Yum! Me too"

She leans down and kisses him "for breakfast"

"Breakfast…right"

Dressing in swimwear and cover ups, they plan to spend a little time on deck, in the sun after breakfast. They put together a bag with sunscreen, glasses and hats. These New Yorkers will burn to a crisp very quickly if they don't

* * *

As they finish their selections at the breakfast buffet Rick and Kate go looking for a table that is not already filled with people. They walk around one side of the area then the other and just as they are planning to step to the outside seating, a voice rises about the noise of the room

"BEX"

The Castles look in the direction of the voice to see Brett Edwards standing and waving in their direction. He points toward his table where there are two empty seats. Not wanting to be rude Castle nods toward the table and Beckett begins moving in that direction. When they come close they see that there are two children around ten or twelve along with a much older woman taking up four of the six seats an the table

"Please join us, please" Brett says as he is pointing at the open chairs

"OH we don't want to interrupt" Kate states

"No, you are not interrupting anything" He points to the children "These are my children Robin and Brett and my mother Amelia" he indicates the older woman

Castle and Beckett place their trays down at the table

Brett turns to his mother "This is an old friend from high school, Kate Beckett and her husband Richard Castle. He is the author of the Derrick Storm and Nikki Heat books that Robin and I loved so much"

"Nice to meet you two" the older woman tells the couple. My son has told me a lot about you two"

Beckett responds "Nice to meet all of you. Should I be afraid of whatever Brett said about us?"

"Oh No darling. He and my daughter-in-law loved all Mr. Castle's books including Nikki Heat. He especially loved them after finding out they were written about you, Kate. He told Robin that he knew you from high school. He said that you two were old friends"

Kate smiles at this "We were. He, me and Maddie"

The man laughs "I almost forgot about her. You know I had a crush on her back then"

Rick looks at Kate then back to Brett "Oh! You did? Did you?"

"Yes. When you are 14 and the shortest guy in class and all the girls in school are taller than you and then the two best looking girls in school are your friends you have to pick the shorter one…sorry Kate you were taller than me"

She laughs "So why did you want to make out with me under the grandstands?"

"I was hoping you could teach me how?"

This the moment that the two children at the table both start to gag "DAD that is disgusting" the young boy states

"Eww. Can we go now?" the little girl asks

"Yes you may go but you two stay with your grandmother and do not go near the adult pool. You both know the rules"

The two children jump up "yes dad" and they grab a bag from under the table. The older woman looks at Rick and Kate "Nice to meet both of you and I hope to see you again"

And she turns toward the exit. They all rush out the door toward the pool deck

"Same here" Kate responds to the woman then she looks at her old classmate "two kids huh?"

"Yeah they are twins. Robin and I had them 10 months to the day after we married. They weren't planned but it didn't matter. They are loved"

Castle feels it necessary to comment "We have only been married 6 months and have not talked about children yet, but I have a grown daughter. I understand about loving them. Planned or not"

"They are my life now" Brett comments looking at the door they just left from

This is when Kate looks at Brett's left hand and she sees a wedding ring "Is your wife joining us for breakfast?"

He looks at his ring then back at Kate "No…I…uh…I'm a widower"

"Oh. I'm so sorry" Castle states "I noticed your ring and I…I just thought…"

Brett continues to look at his finger "I lost her a year ago. An accident, a terrible accident… I can't take it off" referring to the ring

"That's OK. You don't need to say any more" Beckett comments "I lost my mother to a murder"

Brett looks at her "Yes I saw it on the news. Senator Bracken. I am sure that was a shock"

Kate can only nod her head in response

Changing the subject Castle chooses to comment "So you mentioned the Mystery Tour. Are you a participant?"

"Yes as a matter of fact, I am" he starts telling the story "A group from work are murder mystery buffs. Your books are how we got involved. My wife was a fan of your work then she got me reading them, then the Nikki Heat stories came out and I really got hooked. Of course having a smokin' hot NYPD detective always gets the male reader, right?" He looks at Kate who simply smiles aback at him

"Anyway, I got my co-workers reading them and we found out about the mystery tours and here I am. There is a team from my office playing the game"

"How did you know that Rick and I are married?" Beckett questions

"After Robin and I got to reading I found the Cosmo story about how Castle modeled Nikki after you. I told Robin that we went to school together" he chuckles "she didn't believe me until I showed her my yearbook and there was your picture actually only one page from mine"

Brett suddenly seems to have a pensive look on his face "she was impressed that I actually knew Nikki Heat. She thought that was super cool".

Kate decides it might be a good idea to leave this subject alone "Brett, Rick and I need to go. It was nice visiting with you"

He responds "Yeah. Me too. I hope we get to visit with you two again"

Castle and Beckett stand and move to the exit and out for a morning on the deck before the sun gets too high.

They walk to the deck looking for a semi shady place to set up when Kate comments "That is so sad"

"I can only imagine. Losing your wife like that. He never said, but I wonder what happened?"

"He only said an accident. I wonder if it was a car? An airplane? Train?"

"Could be anything" Castle responds

The pair find a nice pair of chairs to sit in and begin to take things from the bag they brought when a woman's voice rises up "hello again"

Rick and Kate look at the very next chair where they find Amelia in the next chase lounge "Oh hello Amelia" Kate comments "are these taken?"

"No darlings. Please join me. I will enjoy having company while my grandchildren are running wild all over the place" she points toward the children's pool where the twins are splashing around with several others their age

Castle and Beckett place towels on the chairs and Kate drops her cover up exposing the same swimsuit she wore in Los Angeles when they went looking for Royce's killer. She gets out the sun screen and hands it to Castle "will you rub this lotion all over me?"

His eyes get big as he leans into her ear and whispers "Do you know how long I have fantasized about doing this to you?"

She responds into his ear "Only the exposed parts"

"What about your other bits?"

"Not in public" she chides back

He looks like a spoiled child but he keeps his hands only on the exposed skin. Nothing else, For now!

After settling back to get a little sun Kate looks over to the older woman "You have two beautiful grandchildren there"

The older woman smiles back to Kate "thank you so much. I love them and they are really great. They are the one thing that has kept my son sane this last year. After his wife died he went into a deep depression. The little ones kept him sane. He is almost ready to start living again. I am hoping this cruise and game will bring him back to normal"

Castle, being the optimist "maybe it will"

He pauses for just a moment "Can I ask a question, if you don't mind?"

"Sure" Amelia responds

"How did his wife die? He said it was an accident"

The older woman smiles gently "She was walking down the sidewalk on Lexington and a piece of steel being hoisted by a crane at a construction site broke loose and came down on her killing her instantly. There was an investigation and it was determined that the crane was overloaded"

"Sounds like there should be some kind of liability" Beckett comments

"These is an ongoing lawsuit over it but the developer is fighting it saying he was not at fault, that the cable was defective. It was the crane operator's fault"

Kate spent all her life as the daughter of lawyers. She has heard about these stories from the first time she can remember


	7. Chapter 7

Sitting in the sun for two hours, even in the shade and covered with SPF30 sun screen, still drains a lot out of someone not accustomed to the bright hot sun. After spending the majority of the morning out on the deck, under a canopy getting a little sun, Rick and Kate have decided to go back inside and out of the direct assault of old sol

Kate throws her cover-up back on and Rick helps gather their belongings and they go back inside the protection of the covering of the ship.

They are returning to their room to change from their swim wear and back into more causal cruising attire before heading back out on the ship for more fun activities

After arriving in the room Castle offered to finish rubbing lotion on her other body parts that will be exposed after she removes her bathing suit but all he gets is an eye roll from his girl. If this woman only knew what these things do to him maybe she would stop or maybe she does know exactly and does this because of his reaction

She is able to convince him to wait until later for more honeymoon activities but he makes her promise that they will not wait too long and she does happily agree

Once they have changed their clothes, they decide to go see how much money they can loose in the casino. Castle told Beckett that he usually breaks even on the Blackjack tables but he is willing to play any game as long as Kate is beside him

Walking down the corridor they pass near one of the placards advertising various activities on board and they notice a scavenger hunt game is beginning just after lunch in the theater. It is advertised for adults only.

"Let's go play that after lunch" Beckett comments. She has not realized herself until just now how much she has loosened up since they left port. She is really getting into this thing called 'vacation' and looking forward to the next experience

Castle stops to read the notes about the game "It says that they will be looking for things that might or might not be carried on your person so bring you bags and purses" he looks at his wife "That giant bag you always carry around will probably have everything they could possibly want. So we are a shoe in to win"

One more poke for good measure and they walk down the corridor, hand in hand toward the casino

Stepping up to the Blackjack table, Castle purchases chips from his on board ship card and sits down to play. Kate joins him for several hands and it is a good thing she did. Every time he lost a hand, she won. So the time spent on the table was, just like he said. Break even

Kate takes her winnings, about equal to Rick's losses, and tells him she is going to go play the slot machines. He stays at the Blackjack table until he is finally down to the last chip he began with.

Standing up, he walks around looking at all the other passengers playing various games from craps, to roulette, Texas Hold um, and finally finds his long legged brunette sitting in front of a slot machine pushing buttons

He walks up behind her and leans down "Hey gorgeous. Looking for a good time?"

She never looks away from her machine "No. I'm having all the good time I need right here"

This is when Castle looks at the machine and sees that she has won over a thousand dollars on this slot machine

"How much did you put in?" He asks

"Twenty dollars. Why?"

"I think it is time to cash out"

"Why would I do that? I'm winning"

"But after winning it is easy to keep going and loose"

She lays her head back against him "OK" she reaches over and punches 'Cash Out" She takes her ticket and they move over to the cashier. She has her winnings credited to the cruise card and her and her husband depart the casino and head toward the lunch buffet

* * *

Arriving at the buffet line they see that the selections have changed from breakfast faire to more midday meal items. The custom omelet pans have been replaced by stir fry. The pancakes and waffles have become sandwich preparation items. The fruit selections have remained basically the same. The pastries have morphed into small cakes and pies

Once more they gather their items and move toward a table. This time a woman's voice rises above the din of noise in the room

"Rick! Kate!"

Turning to locate the source Castle and Beckett are met with his neighbor from the Hamptons, Sara Green, waving toward them. This time she is alone "Please join me" she points at the table

"Oh we wouldn't want to intrude. I am sure your other friends are coming" Kate comments

"Don't be silly" Sara responds "They are all out on the deck trying to show off as much skin as possible in an attempt to see what they might be able to catch using shinny bait…if you know what I mean"

Castle looks at Beckett seeking approval for them to stay here. Even Kate does not know why, but she agrees for them to sit with Castle's neighbor, Sara, and a woman who was formerly competition to Beckett

"Well Sara, are you enjoying the cruise?" Kate asks

"It is real nice. I am really looking forward to the mystery game later"

Thinking she is asking for inside information Rick begins commenting "Sara, I really can't tell you anything…"

She interrupts "…no! No, I understand. I mean I really am excited to play the game"

She pauses for a second "You know after you two got together, you encouraged me to change"

This comment strikes Castle and Beckett odd

"It is evident what you two have is real and after that little kidnapping beck home and my rescue, I began to look at my own life and wondered if I was being too much of a flirt. Acting like a ditsy teenager. After loosing Kirk it hit me hard and I just went off the deep end but now I have decided I need something more in my life. You know, more than parties and hanging out in the Hamptons with all the rich people"

"That is quite a revelation, Sara" Kate comments

"Yeah and you two have made me want more"

"How? Rick asks

"I see how much in love you two are. Every time you come to the island, all the gossip is about you two"

Castle and Beckett look at each other wondering exactly what is being said about them there

"I don't understand" Beckett states

Sara points at Castle "He was the rich bachelor of every girl's dreams. All the women wanted to be with him and they tried to be by being the most 'out there' woman in town because they all thought that this was what he wanted. They all spent a lot of money trying to buy beauty. All for the wrong reasons"

She pauses

"But then he shows up with a you" Sara looks at Kate "A natural beauty. Someone who's radiance comes from somewhere deep inside. Not from a bottle, a spray, or a plastic surgeon"

Kate starts to comment "Is that why you are here, inside, and not on the deck…"

"Flaunting everything? Yeah" Sara looks at her watch "But I need to go. Thanks for listening to my rant. And Kate" looking at Beckett "Thank you for being a role model for me"

She stands and moves down the corridor toward the state rooms

Castle looks at his wife "WOW you can do it all"

"I…I don't know what to say"

* * *

Castle and Beckett enter the small theatre where the play will be occurring later tonight and move toward the front of the room. They locate a seat near several other couples and sit down. Kate had stopped in their room and grabbed her go bag hoping that whatever the scavenger hunt might require. She does keep a lot of things in this bag.

The room is fairly full with guests seated in both the front and rear of the room.

The cruise director steps up on stage and takes a microphone "Hello everyone. We will be starting soon but first, here is the deal. We are going to divide into teams. Each team needs about ten to twelve players" she points toward stage left "This is the first group. So lets move together" she points to the next table "Second group",,,

She moves the players around until there is five teams equally divided. Each team is given a large placard with a number from one to five

"Now I will call out an item that I want brought up to the stage. The teams will hold up the item and their number and rush to the stage here" she points to the apron at her feet. "I will call out the numbers in order as the team arrives with the item and Joey over here" pointing toward an assistant "will write them down. The scoring will be for the first to bring an item to the last one to bring an item" she stops for a moment "Let's say I ask for someone to bring me a motorcycle. The first team to bring a motorcycle will be awarded first place for that round. The team with the highest score at the end wins. Everyone understand?"

She waits for questions then continues "Now…some of these items will be…shall we say, of a more adult variety. That is the reason children are not allowed in to play this game"

Pause again "Everyone ready to start?"

Castle and Beckett are on team five all the way to one side of the room. She has her large bag on her lap ready to start. Kate is looking around and notices that her old high school friend, Brett is on team two across the room. She tries to get his attention but his is busy talking to another player who has their back to Castle and Beckett "Hey, Castle" Kate whispers to him "look who is playing on team two"

Rick leans over to Kate. "Come on Kate. Let's beat the pants off of him"

The cruise director looks at her notes "Let's start" she reads her paper "I need the first person to being me a…police whistle"

Naturally, Kate has a real police whistle in her bag.

The next item is "A Wooden Pencil"

An item that the police use consistently is real wooden pencils. They are always dependable and do not need anything special to keep them working

Another item requested is a small pocket spiral notebook. Again Kate digs into her bag of tricks and retrieves her police notebook

The other teams are not very happy as Rick and Kate seem to have a corner on the game.

The game moves into the more standard items someone would carry. A photo ID that is Not a driver's license. Kate has her police photo badge

But the next item is more difficult for her to provide. A stick of chewing gum that has real sugar

There is a mad dash by all the player checking for gum.

The items become more and more difficult to find. Toenail clippers. Not fingernail clippers. A man's pocket comb. A can of hairspray, a rubber band

Whoever dreamed up this game selected the items carefully

The game begins to move into the more 'adult' areas when the cruise director asks for a man to bring a pair of women's panty hose.

Laughs begin and it appears some of the women are wearing the required item and start fighting to remove it when one man on team two gets very creative and walks to the stage carrying a woman who is wearing her panty hose. That brings a lot of laughs but it is technically correct and they get the score

But the next item leaves Rick and Kate off in the cold when the cruise director asks for…

A condom

Kate does not even bother to look. She knows that there is definitely not one in her bag of tricks

They know the game is getting close to the end because of the time and then the cruise director calls out for the next item

"I need a man to bring…a woman's bra…NOT being worn"

Even having been the former playboy this request gets a chuckle from Castle. He thinks to himself 'they will have trouble getting that item'. That is until he looks over to his wife and realizes she has just unfastened hers and is pulling the straps thru her arms and pulling it out from under her blouse and then handing it to him

She honestly wishes she had a camera to capture the look on his face when he realizes what she just did

"CASTLE. Grab the number and get up to the stage with this"

* * *

After the game finishes and the teams are leaving Castle is trying to figure out what to do with her bra. He can't just go walking down the corridor swinging it over his head and she doesn't seem to mind being without it

"Kate. You want to go in the ladies' room and put this back on?"

She has checked herself and is confident that no one is going to realize she is traveling without this, so she turns to Castle "No. I'm good. I don't really need it right now. You just hang on to it" and she walks ahead of him. She knows that this is driving him completely insane. And she loves it

"KATE! You can't just go around without…I mean…not wearing…I…like...without this" he is holding her bra but not where anyone else can see what he has in his hand

"What's the matter Ricky? Have you never seen a woman braless before?"

"Not MY Woman"

She rises up to his face and then gently rubs his ear lobe with her fingers "OH! Really?" and she turns and starts to walk away from him

Looking at her item of underwear in his hand, he finally decides to stuff it into his pocket. He does not realize the end strap and clasp is still hanging out and is plainly visible as he is rushing to catch her.

"Hey Castle, Let's go gamble. I want to play some more before we go back to the room and they head toward the casino.

Moving down the corridor, Kate is a little surprised at herself about how open and free she has become. What she is doing at this very moment is more than she ever thought about being before.

After arriving at the tables, Castle is hovering over Beckett watching to make sure no one around notices she is void of one important piece of her underwear. He keeps checking to make sure nothing is showing but he was not prepared for what happened when she walked up to the craps table and leaned over in front of him to place her bet. Castle almost choked trying to breathe when he realized he could see all the way down her blouse.

Castle grabs his wife and begins pulling her away from the table. She starts to giggle at his actions. He is trying to stay in front of her, blocking any oncoming passenger form seeing anything while they walk, or more accurately run, back toward their room. When he finally gets the door open he pushes her inside, closes the door, then turns her around and pins her to the bulkhead and begins assaulting her neck

"What's the matter, big guy?" she finally gets out when he releases her lips "I did promise you that there would be more honeymoon. Didn't I?"

* * *

 **OK! Enough silly.**

 **Time to kill someone off**  
 **I have done a lot of set up on this story. Hopefully to throw everyone off as to who the killer will be**

 **The next chapter is a good location for a nice murder**

 **But I promise. They are still on their honeymoon**


	8. Chapter 8

**This is absolutely hilarious. Today, I received an email advertising a major cruise line offering a favorite authors cruise. The only difference, these were romance and not a murder mystery cruise**

* * *

This time Castle is the first to open his eyes and to hear and feel the low gentle hum of the ship and the soothing sound all round them. He looks at the clock and sees that they still have some time before having to get up and get ready to go to the dining room then onto the theatre for the mystery show.

He is on his side and she is in front of him just inches away and well within reach without moving. He slides forward and reaches around Kate and gently places his arm over her side and across her stomach. As soon as he does, her arm comes over his. She moves her hand, and places it on top of his indicating her desire to touch as much as he is wanting to touch her

She tangles her fingers into the back of his hand and then pulls his arm up her body holding him close. She turns his hand and then slides his hand under her head with the palm on the side of her face. This way her cheek is laying on his hand like the pillow with the palm of her hand on the back of his.

She then wraps her other arm around the back of his arm holding him tight to her chest

She never moves anything else then she starts her comments "We make a pretty good team, don't we?"

Leaning very close to her ear "Yeah, we do. And we are pretty good at this one on one stuff also"

Instead of poking his arm, he feels her entire arm tighten in its connection to him. She turns her face gently to the hand under her face and kisses his palm then looks back toward the front.

He is relishing in this connection with her and the intimacy they have without any falseness or doubt

"I love you Katherine Beckett" he whispers gently into her ear

Turning her head to look at him "Back at ya"

Another kiss ensues. When she opens her eyes she back up, she sees the love for her written all over his face

"You are enjoying this. Aren't you?" he states in his tone of voice

Her soft response "yes. I am…very, very much"

After a moment pause "Castle. I have never had a real vacation. No down time without a murder. No tasks to do. No laundry. No walls to paint or furniture to move around. Nothing but just enjoy myself…ourselves"

"You seem to be enjoying yourself a lot"

"The naps are nice too"

"Yes they are"

She rolls back toward him and with a laugh in her voice "I really liked the little scavenger hunt earlier"

"I never thought you would do THAT for the sake of a game" pointing toward her bra that is laying across the chair

She giggles "I wish you could have seen the look on your face when I handed my bra to you"

"That was because my heart rate had just exceeded normal limits"

She touches his face "You did look a little flushed"

"And then I needed to make sure nothing was showing and no one else could see anything on our way out of there"

"Oh, babe that was not a problem. No one was looking at my…uh my boobs. They were all focused on Triple B"

"What do you mean?"

"You didn't see her? She was in group one. She had taken her bra off too, and everyone else in the room were focused on her. It was kind of hard not to see a LOT of her over on the other end of the room with it all hanging out…so to speak"

"I honestly did not notice. I was focused on the love of my life"

"So I really don't need any enhancements?"

"None"

She smiles as she touches his cheek "Thank you for loving me just like I am"

He responds "No. Thank you"

"For what?" She asks

"Loving me with all my history"

* * *

In spite of their afternoon naps, they are dressed and at the main dining room with time to spare

The evening meal is every bit as elegant and delicious as the night before. The three other couples spend most of the night bragging about their children. When they come around to Castle and Beckett, the group understands that they have only been married a short time and no Castle babies are running around back home but Rick tells the group about Alexis and is in college and it is evident the pride that exists in him and Kate as sell

Watching the time carefully, Rick and Kate excuse themselves so they can get to the theatre and get ready for the show and murder

* * *

By the time they get there several of the players have already arrived and the teams are gathering around tables strategizing about their plans. Since they do not know what they will be seeing each player has been given assignments, such as one being dedicated to taking notes about whatever Castle has to say before the game begins

Castle and Beckett have placed themselves in the table set aside just for the host and his wife and are visiting with several of the fans who have stopped by. Some actually have brought books to get autographed

Brett Edwards comes by and says hi to Rick and Kate. He introduces his fellow players to the couple.

Kate and Rick are then greeted by Gina. "Glad you got here early. I have a script for you to go over"

"I looked over the one you e-mailed me before we sailed. Did it change?"

"Yeah. We rewrote who the killer is. But just to review the way this works. The actors were given their scripts. They had one rehearsal today. The script is written so we could make any one of the players the killer. Each one will have a good reason to commit the murder, sort of the way you write Nikki Heat"

"Hey. I write Nikki knowing full well who is the killer and the victim before I begin"

She mumbles under her breath "That's not the way it looks when I read the draft" then louder "anyway the play will stop with all the cast in a frozen position on stage. The players will be given the opportunity to view the crime scene"

"Will they be allowed to come up on stage?"

"No! They have to investigate from the floor but they can walk around. Then photos will be available for them to look at like police crime scene shots"

"Then there will be clues staged at each port we stop at" Castle asks

"Yes1 Like a piece of evidence at St. Croix. Another in San Juan and so forth"

"So, Gina. Who is the victim and who did it?"

"I only know the victim and it is close to home for me"

"Oh! Someone finally going to kill the publisher?" Castle comments. He looks at Kate who is trying to suppress a smirk

"You will see…later now get ready to start the play"

The house lights dim and Rick's ex takes the stage. Gina Griffin steps onto the stage and when she does the room becomes quiet

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I am Gina Griffin and I am the President of Black Pawn Publishing and I am your sponsor for the evening. This Murder Mystery Tour began several years ago at the suggestion of the late and I will say great author, Stephen Cannell. He was a driving force in the murder mystery genre and brought us many sleepless nights trying to finish his books"

She pauses a moment before continuing "And it is in that theme that we bring you tonight's story. So to get us started, I wish to introduce your famous mystery writer host, my friend, and, I will admit, former husband, and the author of Derrick Storm and Nikki Heat, Richard Castle"

During the applause Castle stands up from his table, gives his wife a kiss and walks up the steps to the microphone

When the applause dies down he begins "Thank you everyone for being here tonight. I am sorry if anyone was hoping to see Paterson, but he came down with the flu and they decided on me instead"

Castle opens the script that was prepared for him "Ladies and Gentlemen. Murders and the murdered alike, welcome to our play titled"

"The Butler Did It!"

This does bring a few laughs from the audience

"We begin out play at the isolated mansion of recluse billionaire Maurice Westbury. He is hosting his annual dinner party at multimillion dollar estate and mansion on the ocean front in a desolate area in Maine He is best known for throwing these wild parties and inviting the list of unusual guests "

"The first one being Big Bobby Brass. He is the owner and principle investigator at the Balls Private investigator Service"

A man walks out on stage wearing a trench coat with a stogie in his mouth

"Joining him is his part time secretary and full time girlfriend Sugar Samples"

A big boobed Ditsy Blonde struts out on stage wearing a dress several sizes too small

Next is Daniel Bradbury, National celebrity, movie actor and well known playboy. Known to hurt women by his love them and leave then life style. Played a private investigator in the action TV series "Big Bobby, PI" loosely based upon the PI, Big Bobby

A well dressed, handsome man steps out on stage looking the part of the Hollywood actor type

"He has brought with him Susan Sometimes. She is want to be actress. She is trying to get into Hollywood movies by sleeping with as many producers, directors, and actors as she can.

A long legged flashy brunette arrives wearing a dress with a slit almost to the hip showing a large amount of leg with every step she takes

"Next we have Donald Diamond. He is the rich neighbor from next door to Westbury. He is a business man who got his money from playing the stock market. His wife and socialite Dorothy Diamond is with him. The two of them fancies themselves as Nick and Nora Charles"

A smartly dressed couple appear. He in a causal sports shirt, her in a modest ladies slacks and suit coat.

"And finally we have Reginald. The butler"

Castle looks up to see that the man playing the butler is actually the developer and Gina's boyfriend Claude Wisdom. Rick looks at his wife who is openly laughing

"The Billionaire host, Maurice Westbury is known for having parties and inviting those to come to his mansion for dinner and a murder. Tonight is no different. It seems that Detective Brass is world famous for solving the mundane while the Diamonds have travelled the world helping police forces everywhere solving cold cases"

Castle looks at the cast who have now seated themselves at the long dining table. The butler has stationed himself at the sideboard and is placing dishes onto a serving tray

"Tonight a storm is moving in from the ocean" at this moment the lights on stage flash and the sound of thunder is felt around the room "and the group are faced with the possibility of being stranded at the mansion for the duration of the inclement weather"

Castle looks again at the stage to verify that everyone is ready for the play to start

Turning back to the audience "Let's join our diner as Mr. Westbury welcomes his guests"

The spotlight on Castle dims and everyone's attention is on the diner guests

The butler picks up a tray and begins placing the first course on the table

Using a very snobby and obviously fake British accent he begins "Welcome to my home everyone. I have invited all of you here to be a part of a murder"

The group murmurs among themselves

"Someone is going to be murdered tonight and the killer is among us here in this house"

Lightning flashes again before he continues "Each one of you sees themselves an expert sleuth but I am going to prove you all wrong"

There is a more intense flash and a loud boom of thunder

"The amateur couple from next door ask "We have lived here for years and have seen you host parties here all the time but no one is ever hurt…"

Another clap of thunder occurs and the stage lights blink for a moment. The butler is placing more dishes on the table

"Are you saying that someone is really going to die?"

With his voice becoming more snobby "OH, yes absolutely, maybe. But it will be up to the investigation but to add some interest to your quest I am offering a cash prize of one million dollars to whoever at this table discovers the identity of the killer first"

Another more intense clap of thunder and another flashing of the lights

The private detective had been sitting chewing on his old cigar finally speaks with an accent that is a cross between the Bronx and Brooklyn "Will that prize be cash or a payout. I have a bill coming due that the creditor is wanting his payment either in cash by the end of the week or I give up a certain body part that I am quite fond of"

Daniel Bradbury makes the next comment just after even more intense thunder clap "I could use that money to finance my next movie. It is titles "Big Brass takes on steel town"

Finally the host responds "The rules are simple. Give the name of the murder and the reason he or she murders the victim. The money will be yours"

At this moment there is the loudest clap of thunder and the lights go out. The entire room is now completely in the dark.

On the stage there is sounds of men and woman with a low scream. Then the sounds of furniture being moved then a louder scream followed by the sound of a moan and what sounds like something landing on the table with the wound of dishes being dropped or hitting together.

A moment of silence follows then the stage lights come back up

All the guests are still seated around the table but there is an added centerpiece on top

A body is lying on the table with the face in the fruit salad and a large butcher knife sticking out of the back surrounded by blood

The diner guests all seem to be honestly shocked by the scene in front of them


	9. Chapter 9

After the stage lights came back up the entire cast on the stage froze in their spot. The plan was for them to be frozen when the lights came up and then to move into the next phase of the play.

But they all seem to be honestly confused by something on the stage with them. Finally the sound of a woman's scream permeates the room when the actress playing Dorothy Diamond lets out the sound of fear in a blood curdling yell and then covers her mouth with her hand

None of the other actors seems to be moving either until finally Donald Diamond yells out "He's dead! He's been killed" pointing at Claude Wisdom playing the butler, who is lying on top of the table, face in the salad bowl and with his arms spread out over the dinner rolls and green beans with blood oozing down his side and onto the table cloth spreading a red stain moving over the table covering

"He's dead! I mean he's really dead!" Maurice Westbury yells pointing at the body

The audience bursts out in applause then voices can be heard mumbling in groups commenting on the actions. Several of the audience begin taking photographs trying to get ahead in their investigations.

"NO! NO! He really has been stabbed" comes the sound of a non fake accent coming from the man playing the host, Maurice Westbury "He is really been stabbed"

More voices in the audience can be heard talking amongst themselves when the man portraying Big Bobby Brass also yells out toward the wings now with his fake accent no missing "Close the curtains! Hurry, quick! Call medical, call security. This man is really been stabbed"

He is now pointing to the body on the table

Thinking that this might just be a real crime, it is at this moment that Beckett and Castle stand and rush onto the stage, arriving just moments before the curtains finish closing and blocking the audience from the stage

"What is going on?" Beckett is the first to speak

Pointing at the victim, the actress playing Susan Sometimes, answers "He was not supposed to be stabbed. He is the victim, yes, but he is not supposed to be on the table. He is supposed to be on the floor behind the table where no one from the audience can see him"

Bobby Brass continues "He was to be hidden from the audience. That is part of the play. They do not see how he is killed. We let them see that later in the evidence"

Beckett's detective skills take control of the situation "No one move! Everyone stay exactly where you are" Beckett looks off stage trying to fins a crew member. She spots a man in a crew uniform "You! What is your name?"

"Joey Lawson, ma'am" He answers "I am the assistant to the cruise director"

"Do you know how to locate the doctor and the chief of security?"

"Yes ma'am"

"Then go call the ship's doctor. I need a medical professional to come here and verify that the victim is deceased and get security here now!"

Kate looks around the table then to her husband "Rick. Will you take some pictures showing where everyone is located, then get some shots of the victim from different angles?"

"Kate. I don't have a camera and my phone is in our room"

"I saw several people out there taking pictures. Go and see if you can borrow a camera from one of them" She directs Castle

"Yes, dear" Rick rushes off to the side of the stage then around the closed curtain on to the apron of the stage and out into the audience. He looks around the room and notices someone that he knows very well, holding a regular camera. He descends off the apron and onto the main floor and approaches the group of players. They are all standing around talking about the event that just took place up on the stage

"Sara…" Castle speaks above the din of noise in the room

The woman spins around from her conversation with her friends and team mates "Rick! What is happening?" She points toward the closed curtain

"Sara. I will fill you in later, but right now, can I borrow your camera?"

She looks at the device in her hand then back to Castle "On one condition…you promise me that I will get special access to the case?" she gives Rick a slight eye brow raise

He thinks for just a second then responds "Yes! Fine! We will definitely let you in on the inside as soon as I am allowed to divulge any information. You will definitely be the first to know"

She reaches out with the camera in her hand then gives it over to Castle "Here you go Rick. I expect to hear from you soon. Then much softer "and I will be in my room" she whispers "2120" then louder again "as soon as you and Kate can give me anything" she winks at him.

Castle smiles at Sara and spins to return to the stage with this new crime fighting tool. While Sara rejoins her friends including triple D and the other ladies from the Hamptons

When he comes around the corner from backstage, he sees that Kate has moved all the participants to separate areas of the stage. He knows that this is a method in interrogations to get the witnesses apart so that no two of them can compare notes about what took place

He steps up beside his wife "Beckett, I got us a camera. A real camera with a strobe and everything"

Beckett takes the camera and looks it over very quickly then hands it back to Castle

"Rick. I need you to go do some real police work right now. I want you to take pictures around the stage. You have been to enough crime scenes to know basically what information we are after. So take photos from each angle. Get a few shots from a distance to set up an overview of the area, then get close ups of the victim's back. Take photos of the knife from more than one side"

She stops just a second looking across the stage at the witnesses "I need you to take individual pictures of all of the actors"

"OK then what about individual pictures with ID tags so we can write up notes later"

She smiles to her husband "You have been playing attention to my work too, haven't you?"

"You mean when I wasn't being distracted by your smoking hot body…" That earns him a very gentle poke and a smile

She looks toward the crime scene then back to her husband "it looks like our honeymoon has been cancelled"

"Kate. I understand. You are hard wired to solve crimes and I knew that when I signed on to be your life partner"

She leans into his face and kisses him on the cheek "I love you"

Smiling at her "Back at ya"

Their brief romantic interlude is interrupted by the sound a man's voice speaking with a level of authority "What is happening here?"

The pair looks up to see a man in a ship's crew uniform walking onto the stage from stage right. His epilate indicates he is a high ranking officer "I am the ship's security officer, Chief Frank Owens"

Kate steps up to the man and extends her hand Chief, I am Homicide Detective Kate Beckett, NYPD" she points to Rick "and this is my husband and partner Richard Castle"

The security officer accepts the extended hands then continues "What is happening?"

Beckett points toward the table "The victim is Claude Wisdom. He was playing a part in the play…a murder mystery play but it appears someone decided to add a little too much authenticity to the show and put a knife into his back"

The ships security director is looking at the crime scene. He walks around the stage then turns back to Beckett "and what were you two getting ready to do when I came up?"

"Castle was going to start talking pictures of the crime scene so we have the most current evidence and I was going to start taking notes, but I will gladly relinquish to your authority. I have no jurisdiction here and this is really your case"

The man looks around the area then motions for Beckett and Castle to follow him off stage "Detective, I am a retired police officer but I never investigated anything close to this. I was a patrol officer in a little town in Kansas. I dealt with plenty of mean drunks and a few motorcycle gang members. I was pretty good at the physical part of police work But the worst death case I worked there was an 18 wheeler roll over that killed a cow that was too close to the road. But I wanted to do more. I wanted to become a detective so I applied and went to Boston but I got injured on the job before making detective and was forced to retire. I have never worked a murder. I would really appreciate any help you can give me"

"OK" Beckett starts up "Let's start with this! Who's jurisdiction is this? I mean we are at sea. We are in international waters and we are a day away from any port. So what country has jurisdiction over this case?"

"We are a US flagged ship, we left from a US home port and our next stop is a US port. So it is US federal jurisdiction"

"You mean the FBI takes over" Castle comments

"Yes" the security chef answers "We have had a few occasions where we had to deal with passengers that were unruly and had to be removed from the ship and the FBI is where we had to go, so Yes the FBI will be in charge…but since you are a homicide detective and you are already here…Would you mind helping me?"

"Chief, I…really this is not…I mean…"

"Detective. Please. At least help me secure the scene until we get to the Virgin Islands and the feds can take this"

Kate looks at Rick who smiles at his wife therefore giving his approval

"OK we will help gather evidence and make notes, but we will work thru you"

The man seems very happy with her answer "Thank you" he looks across the stage "What do we need to do now?"

Beckett answers the chief "Take statements from the players on stage" she points at all the men and women she sequestered earlier "Castle and I will get pictures and make evidence notes. Then we will get back together later and compare information"

"Sounds great to me" the security chief responds. He looks off stage and sees that several of his other personnel have arrives along with the ship's doctor. The security team begins taking statements from the cast and some stage crew that were behind the curtains when the murder happened.

The ship's doctor introduces himself to Beckett and Castle "Hello I am Dr. Hawkins, the ship's chief medical officer. What is going on here?"

Beckett responds Doctor, I am detective Kate Beckett, NYPD and I need you to verify the death of this man" she points out the obvious body with the knife sticking out of his back

The doctor has a look on his face almost like he has never seen a dead body" Uh…I…I am a ship's doctor. I treat sunburn, bug bites, I am not a forensics specialist"

"Fine" Beckett responds with a little dryness in her voice "I need you to at least confirm death and give me the official cause. You can determine the cause, RIGHT?"

Not taking his eyes off the corpse he finally answers her "Yes, I can confirm cause and certify death"

"Then I need the body placed in cold storage until we can turn him over to the FBI in St. Croix

"Thank you" Kate turns and looks at her husband then makes an eye roll causing Castle to laugh softly. He is so glad that he is not the sole recipient of her frustration.

The audience has not disbursed the ac activities on stage, yet, when Castle and Beckett hear a woman's screams coming from the audience side of the curtain. Rick recognizes the woman's voice immediately.

Gina

The blond comes flying around the curtain and she is rushing toward the table and the body. Rick stops her before she can reach the center of the stage

"CLAUDE! CLAUDE! NO! NO! PLESASE NO!"

It is very evident that she is in deep pain over this man's death

Castle stops her and is having to hold her tightly to prevent her from contaminating the scene

"Gina. I am sorry" Rick states to her. "I am so very sorry"

She muffles thru tear "What happened? He was just play acting. He was not supposed to be killed"

Beckett steps up beside her husband and the publisher "Gina. I know this is a bad time, but do you know anyone who wanted to hurt him?"

She muffles thru her sobs "No! No one. He was a decent, sweet man. I had actually thought I found a man I could be with. You know…but now…I…"

Castle and Beckett lead her off stage. Castle tries to talk to her "Gina, you need to let Kate do her job"

Gina looks up at her ex-husband then to Beckett "OK…Rick promise me you will find who did this to him?"

Castle looks at his wife before answering "We will"


	10. Chapter 10

A cruise ship is a business. Actually two business in one.

One of the two business is a hotel. It has a hotel manager, a concierge, multiple restaurants with the kitchens filled with chefs and cooks. In the dining rooms, the servers and bus staff keeping the guests satisfied with the culinary delights. It also contains retail shops with their individual employees and managers and all the other amenities that a fine luxury hospitality facility would have if it were on dry land

The second business is the ship itself. It has all the mechanics of any ocean going vessel. The engines. Fuel tanks. The water purification systems. Electrical generators and all the other machinery necessary for the hotel inside to safely transports its occupants from one destination to another all the while providing a comfortable experience while on the open water.

Being a ship on the open seas, it falls under laws that are as old as the mariners themselves. One of those laws pertains to the one individual in charge of everything that happens on this sea going hotel

In the case of this ship, its master is Captain Martin Reynolds. A man with many years of experience as the master of the vessel and assuring the safe transport of the cruise liner's guests and crew

In all of his years of travelling the high seas he has not had to deal with a deliberate murder of one of those in his charge. Now, as the captain, he has arrived at the theatre of the ship and is looking for his security chef to get a first hand report of the events surrounding the death of one of the guests

"Chief Owens" booms out from the voice of authority of the captain as he steps on to the stage

The security chief turns and briskly steps up to the ship's master "Yes sir!"

"What do we have here chief?"

The man begins his reporting to the captain "The troupe were acting out a mystery play when one of the players was actually murdered"

"Was it an accident?"

"Definitely not sir! He has a large knife sticking out of his back. A knife that belongs in one of the kitchens and was not part of the props for the play. In fact all the knives on the table for the play are fake."

The captain has moved beside the table and the victim's body "Do you have any idea who did this or why?"

"No sir. The man murdered was a guest player. Not even a member of the regular cast"

"Why was a non-actor playing the part?"

"He is…or rather WAS the boyfriend of the publisher who was sponsoring the event" he looks at his notes "A Ms. Gina Crowell"

"Where is Ms. Crowell?" the captain asks

Chief Owens points off stage right "She is over there with Mr. Castle, the guest mystery writer host and his wife New York police detective, Katherine Beckett

The captain seems to recognize the name. He steps over toward the couple and introduces himself "Mr. Castle, Detective Beckett, I am the ships captain Martin Reynolds" and he extends his hand

"Good to meet you captain" Beckett responds as Castle shakes the captain's offered hand

"Can we talk in private?" The captain asks pointing away from Gina and the others currently being interviewed by the security staff

"Of course" Castle answers. "Gina, we will be right back"

When the trio reach a respectable distance from the group the captain begins "Detective Beckett, I understand you are a homicide detective and these situations are a part of your everyday life"

"Yes sir"

"As I am sure you surmised, this is not a normal occurrence aboard a cruise ship"

"No sir" Beckett answers

"Detective, this is a United States flagged vessel in international waters, sailing from a US port and docking at another US port. This makes this case US jurisdiction"

"That is what the security chief explained" Castle responds

I have already made the initial notification to the FBI about the situation and they asked if we had any sworn law enforcement officer on staff. I told him, no. This is a passenger ship and our security team is just that! Security. Not law enforcement"

"I hear a BUT coming" Castle states

"But! I did tell them a New York police officer was on board, on vacation, and they asked if I could get you to take charge of the investigation. See to it that evidence was preserved, and so on."

He pauses briefly, looking at her hand holding a note pad and Rick's holding a camera "But I would say she has already assumed command of the incident"

Castle and Beckett look at each other then Kate turns back to the captain and responds "Captain, I will or rather Castle and I will help with the investigation, but we must have total support from your staff"

"Whatever you need detective. You have it"

"First off. How long until we are on shore again?"

"We are in an interesting situation. We are almost exactly half way in between two US ports. That means we could technically go either way, except since we are already steaming in the direction of Puerto Rico, to turn, would cost precious time. We are better continuing to the next port of call"

"Very well then, can we make sure the authorities are waiting for us in San Juan?"

"I have already requested that detective"

"Thank you captain"

"What else do you need detective?"

"I am accustomed to certain protocols being done when it comes to evidence gathering and collection. Including how the items are treated. I will need absolute compliance with this if we are to have a chance of finding the killer"

"Whatever you say detective will be done. I will assure you that you will have complete authority and your directions will be followed without question by the crew of this ship"

"Thank you captain but first I need to speak to everyone who will be involved in the investigation"

"Detective Beckett, I will let you get started and I will leave you to do your job"

The captain of the ship seems very happy with his decision for the investigation. He turns to leave then looks back "And thank you for helping detective. I am sure the cruise line will be very grateful for your assistance"

Becket smiles toward the captain then looks back at her husband this time with regret on her face "I guess our honeymoon activities have been delayed some"

Castle smiles to his wife then leans down and kisses her on top of her head "Don't apologize. This is what brought us together in the first place"

"True" she softly responds "So we need to get everything organized. Go ahead and take more pictures. We will look at them later in our room. Be sure to document what they are"

"How do you want me to do that? We don't have any of those cute little yellow numbered tents"

Kate thinks for just a moment "Get the assistant cruise director…what was his name?"

"Joey Lawson" Rick answers

"Right…get Joey to get you some paper and a black marker. Then make your own tents. Then take a note pad and make notes as to what it was and how it relates to the crime scene…you know the drill babe"

"I know just what to do. You go do your thing and I will do mine"

Castle turns and heads off stage to get the staff member and get some writing materials

Kate moves over to the rest of the crew that have been waiting for her instructions. As she approaches the ship's doctor begins speaking for the entire crew

"Detective. We all understand the importance of evidence gathering. I have studied forensics in school but have never practiced it in real life but I will do everything in my power to assure the information I collect meets the requirements for evidence"

"Thank you doctor. Now I need all the items on the table bagged. Each item need to be identified as to its location and written on the outside along with your name and the time and date you placed it inside"

She sends the security group off to do their tasks then Kate turns again to the medical professional "I need the knife bagged with the same information as the other things. I also need his clothes bagged. A larger bag will be needed to do this. When you pull the knife be extra careful of the possibility of fingerprints being on the handle"

"Understood detective" Doctor Hawkins acknowledges her requirements

The rest of the evening is taken up with the stage being filled with several security members performing all the gathering tasks Beckett asked of them along with the witness interviews

As the evening moves into late night Beckett is watching carefully the evidence gathering taking place. Supervising the removal of the knife from the victim and bagging of all the items along with the notes being taken.

Just before the doctor removes the knife Beckett has, once again, taken a careful look at the murder weapon. This is when she notices something

"Wait just a moment, doctor" Kate leans in close to look at the blade and sees the tiny trace of red just back of the blade. She gets Castle to take a close up photo of the blade where it connects to the handle

"Doctor Hawkins, please swab that and get me a blood type and then save the rest for DNA when we get to port" she has indicated the tiny spot of red

Kate turns to her husband "It looks like our killer might just have hurt himself when he plunged the knife in the victim"

"Yes it does" as Castle takes one more photo "Kate. I am going to take the camera to our room and download all the pictures to our laptop so we can look at them later"

Beckett tells Castle to follow her off stage. When they are out of sight of the others she turns around and puts her arms around him "Castle, I know this is not what you wanted us to spend out time doing"

Castle moves the camera to his side and gives Kate a soft kiss

"Look at it this way…things usually get very passionate working on theory building"

She continues "…and after we solve a case, we usually get very…"

He finishes with another warmer kiss "Yes we do"


	11. Chapter 11

**Somehow I was able to finish this chapter after the disaster called 8x02**

* * *

The room door opens and Kate enters into the parlor area of their cabin. She drops down the note pad that she has been carrying since leaving the theatre. Looking around she does not see her husband nor does she hear anything indicating his presence

Walking into the bedroom she discovers a new world has been created in the sleeping section by her man. Since he left her in the show lounge and returned to the cabin, he has been working on setting up a murder board just like they would have done at the precinct

He did not have any access to a magnetic dry erase marker board but instead, the entire wall opposite the bed is now covered with pages from a note pad. He has taped the sheets to the bulkhead giving them a place to write. He put the victim's name over one of the pages in the center and on the sides he wrote 'suspects'

"Hey babe" she chirps out with a laugh in her voice "What in the world are you doing?"

He turns his head from looking at the wall of notes on the bedroom bulkhead to his wife "Hey beautiful"

He smiles at Kate "I have been waiting for you"

"I see you have…" she steps closer "and I also see you have been very busy" She leans down and gives him a kiss "what in the world has my guy been doing?""

He looks at the wall "Just getting ready" he points at the paper he has put up "I set us up with a murder board"

"I see"

"I was waiting for you before we can start. Do you have anything we need to put up here yet?"

She can't help but smile at her husband's antics "Actually, yes I do. I have our first suspect"

Castle's mood seems to change to giddy "Really? You have a suspect already? Who is it?"

"She pauses briefly looking at all the work he has already put up on the board "Yeah. The magician, Conrad Morton"

"Seriously? The performer? Why in the world would he kill Claude? Did they know each other?"

"As far as we can tell, they never met before the cruise"

"Then why would the magician kill Claude?"

"It seems that Conrad was hired for this cruise and was being paid to do his act on a per performance basis"

"So if he performed…"

She responds "He was paid…and if he didn't do his act…"

Rick finished her comment "he did not get paid"

"And he really wanted to do his act tonight"

"What was special about tonight?" Castle questions

Kate continues her story "There is a booking agent on board that Conrad wanted to make sure saw the act and might possibly book him for a gig in Vegas"

"Is Conrad not doing his act again?"

"Yes. He is doing it twice more, but these are scheduled on the evening after the ship leaves Puerto Rico and the booking agent was departing in San Juan and therefore he would not get to see the show"

Castle responds "I guess that would make him a little angry if the agent misses the program"

"And mess up Conrad's chance on going to Vegas"

"OK so how was our victim involved?"

"It seems that Claude was standing talking to the cruise director about the show when Conrad walked up asking about what was going on"

Beckett paused in her description of the events

"She told Conrad his show was postponed and Morton started yelling at her about messing up his Vegas chances. Claude tried to intervene and Conrad threatened to…and I quote 'to take care of things the way we did in Detroit'

"I guess that was taken as a threat?" Rick asks

"Very much a threat, Yes!"

Castle then wonders "Do we know where Morton was during the show tonight?"

Beckett picks up her notes "No. We have not yet talked to him. No one has seen him and he had not returned to his cabin as of when I left the security office. They posted a guard so when he does show up they can bring him into the brig."

"Kate, wouldn't he have been spotted entering or leaving the stage during the play? Someone should have seen him"

"Remember Castle, he is a magician and he did the magician's usual disappearing trick on stage?"

"Yeah, I remember. A giant puff of smoke and he is gone"

"And don't you remember when we were investigating the Zalman Drake case and the street magician disappearing into a box he was standing on?"

"Right!" Castle answers drawing out the word

"Conrad Morton had a trap door installed on the stage for his act so he could do that trick"

"Ok so he could have used it to get on and off the stage without being seen"

"Right, but since there is no lock or other mechanism preventing it from being used, anyone could have used it to get on the stage and off again without being seen by someone in the wings"

Rick considers other ideas "Someone else might have used the trap door"

"According to the stage manager, no one else knew about the trick door. That was one of the magician's secrets"

"I think we need to find Mr. Morton then"

"Yes we do" she states "but right now, I am very tired and I want us fresh and ready tomorrow morning to get started"

"I am too. Let's get to bed then and we can pick back up on this in the morning" Castle stands up and places his laptop on the table "Oh I transferred all the images from Sara's camera to the computer. We can go over them in the morning"

"Great" Kate responds just as a yawn leaves her mouth and she stands and begins taking her clothes off. This is when she thinks about what she will wear to bed tonight. Since they are technically on a honeymoon, she packed all her sleepwear based on this being a more romantic week rather than a normal, go to work, the next day kind of week.

Basically, she did not pack any 'normal' pajamas or sleep shirts and shorts or long pants for that matter. Only very seductive items

While Rick goes into the bath room, Kate looks through the dresser to see what she might wear to bed tonight

She finds one of his t-shirts and slips it over her head and slips under the sheets in the bed.

When Castle comes out of the bathroom he sees his wife is wearing his shirt

"Why did you borrow one of my t-shirts? Don't you have something else to sleep in?"

"Yes. But what I brought was a little more…shall; we say…more appropriate for a honeymoon. So I thought this might be a little less enticing or distracting while we are trying to work on this case"

Castle pulls back the covers and joins her in the bed. "There is only one problem with that"

"And what is that?" Kate asks with obvious glee in her voice

"Anything you wear is enticing and distracting"

"Oh is that so?"

"Absolutely. Do you remember the night gown you found in the bomb shelter?"

Beckett has a questioning look on her face "I think so. There was nothing very sexy about it. If I remember correctly it was long…in fact it went from my neck all the way to the floor…"

Castle finishes the description "and it buttoned at your neck and the sleeves went all the way to your wrists covering every inch of your sexy body"

"OK…and what about it? We had not…you know connected at that point. Were you lusting after my body?" she lets out a silly giggle at this point

"Maybe?"

He pauses a moment "I know it sounds silly but…but, Kate you were so hot in that gown. I couldn't keep my eyes off of you that morning when we woke up together"

She reaches over to his ear and gently rubs his lobe. She knows how much he like her doing that "You thought THAT thing was sexy?"

"Yes…well who was wearing it was sexy…I mean is sexy"

"I didn't' know you noticed it"

"Oh I noticed it alright" and he puts his arm around her back and gently starts pulling up his shirt from her "Just like I noticed how good my shirt looks on you"

She pulls him in for a kiss "You know it looks even better on the floor"


	12. Chapter 12

Morning on a cruise ship in the middle of the Caribbean is a magical wonderful morning. The kind of morning that you really don't want to get up and out of bed.

When Castle rolls over to face his wife, he finds his Kate, has retrieved her covering from the floor and is wearing the t-shirt once again. With her legs covered by the sheet, she is looking at the ad hock murder board that he built the evening before trying to tie together how the magician might be the killer and why

She has a look on her face that she is deep in thought and is not getting anywhere with her theory at the moment

Castle sits up beside his wife, puts his arm around her, and kisses her just behind the ear causing a slight moan to come from her "What are you thinking?"

"I am thinking that if you don't stop that. we might not get this case solved"

"Then let me distract you again" and he kisses her again

She gently shrugs him away with her shoulder "Later"

"OK" he responds grudgingly

Beckett starts up again "Why would the magician throw away his career on this murder? He is a great performer. He will eventually get his big break. Even if this booking agent missed him, the next one will see him and all would be well"

Castle straightens himself up "I heard that the guy was on his last leg. He spent a lot of money setting up the tricks for the act and this cruise was a chance to be seen and get booked so he would make it big"

Kate responds "But how would killing Claude make that happen?" He had no part of the plans to substitute the murder mystery for the magic show"

The phone rings next to the bed. Castle reaches over to pick it up "Castle" he says into the receiver

"OK, understood. We will get dressed and be right there" He hangs the phone up and begins to crawl out of bed "That was the security chief. They detained Conrad Morton. He is in the brig"

Kate swings her long legs out from under the covers in the direction of her husband giving him a nice long look

"Are you sure we need to go this quick?" he asks while his eyes are glued on her long, lean legs

She is smiling up at him and his slack jawed expression "Castle! We have been married for six months and you have had ample opportunity to look at my legs"

"And it never gets boring" he reaches down to caress her leg. Just as he begins to slide his hand a little higher, there is a knock at the corridor door then it opens with the voice of the steward, Carlos, entering "CABIN STEWARD" he speaks loudly in the door. Can I come in?"

As she looks at her husband's hand resting on her thigh "Come on in" she responds. "We will be out there in a few minutes" She jumps up and runs into the bathroom and closes the door leaving her husband standing in the bedroom rushing to put on his pants.

"Is this a bad time?" he hears thru the door

Castle answers "No. You can start out there and we will be out when we get dressed" He closes the bedroom door for privacy and then looks in the direction of the bathroom. He has a smirk on his face thinking 'can't get a break anywhere'

A few minutes later Kate steps out of the bathroom, walks to the dresser, and pulls out a blouse. Then a pair of shorts pants. Not shorts, but pants stopping just above the knees. Castle has gone into the bathroom, having mostly dressed, needing only to brush his teeth and shave.

When she steps back out into the room Kate has finished fixing her hair and he slips into a cool cotton tropical shirt.

Castle opens the bedroom door to find Carlos just finishing up dusting in the living area. "May I start in the bedroom now?" he asks

"Of course" Kate answers and steps aside for the man to enter. Immediately after entering the bedroom he stops and looks at the wall of paper that is their murder board "Mr. Castle? Uh?"

Castle thinks that Carlos is confused about the papers on the wall "OH that is a project Mrs. Castle and I are working on…please don't move anything and leave it all up there. We will need it later"

The steward seems to understand "Very well Mr. Castle I will not touch"

"Thanks Carlos. We are leaving now" and Rick and Kate head out the door to move to the brig

Carlos stands in front of all the paper looking at all the information posted then turns and begins his cleaning and bed making duties

* * *

Down in the lower deep depths of the cruise ship are the working areas. The crew's quarters, the medical facilities the engine room and the security office. Once the Castles are able to find their way to the security office they meet up with the chief Frank Owens

"Chief" Beckett comments as they enter the office

He looks up from his desk "Sorry to interrupt your morning but we got your guy when she stumbled into his cabin about 0300"

Rick and Kate look in the direction the officer is pointing and they can see a cell with bars just like the holding tank at the 12th

"He was so drunk he couldn't even ell us his name. We brought him down here until he sobers up and see if he can give us some answers. We've been letting him sleep it off but I thought it might be time to try and get some answers"

"Thanks chief" Beckett responds "and did you talk to my team in New York? Since our victim is from New York I want to know if there might be some other reason or person that might want him dead"

"Yes. As a mater of fact I just finished sending an e-mail detailing all the information you asked for. I spoke to a Detective Ryan. He was very helpful but…"

"But what ?" Castle asks

"He laughed out loud when I told him what was happening. He said something about not getting a break and then just laughed some more. What is that about?"

"Just an inside joke" Kate answers while she smiles at her husband who is doing the same to her "Can we talk to the magician?"

The chief tells one of his offices to go get the prisoner and being him into the holding room.

While he is doing that, Rick, Kate, and the chief step into the small room to wait. There is only three chairs and a small table in the middle and it is very cramped

Chief Owens apologizes "We have to save every inch of space on a ship so some things are really tight. It's not like we can remodel and knock out a wall to get more room" he points at the bulkhead "The other side of that is the ocean and I don't mean above the water line. We are about 20 feet below the surface here"

The door opens and the officer brings the somewhat sober magician into the room and places him at the table

Through very slurred speech the man starts up "Why…what…why am I here? And where is here?" he looks around

"Mr. Morton. Do you know where you are?" the chief starts

"At a table looking at two men and a beautiful woman"

"You are in the brig on the ship. You remember the ship?"

He gazes off "OH! Yeah. I was on a ship. I was doing my show on the ship. That's why I am on the ship"

Beckett decides to ask the next question "Did you kill Claude Wisdom?"

If a person could become stone cold sober after one sentence, this is it

"WHAT? Kill who. I didn't kill anybody let alone this Wisdom guy. I don't know anyone named Wisdom"

Castle sends out the next line "Are you saying you did not kill the man playing the butler last night in the mystery play?"

"What guy? What play?"

"The play that kept you from performing your act for the Vegas booking agent" Beckett responds

"I didn't kill anybody"

The chief asks the next question "You were heard threatening the cruise director and Mr. Wisdom came to her defense and you threatened him also"

"OH That?"

"Yeah…that"

"I was mad that they messed up my chance to be seen. Yeah I got mad, but I left the theater and went to the Sea Shell's bar and spent the rest of the night drinking. You can ask Barry, the bartender. I sat talking to him all night. In fact, after he closed up, he walked me to the elevator and punched the button to get me back to my cabin. Ask him, he will tell you"

In her usual firm response Beckett states "Oh, we will"

The chief signals the other officer to take Mr. Morton back to the cell and the three of them move back to the office

"I think he is innocent" Castle comments "He really had no reason to kill Claude. To murder someone especially that way, sticking a knife in his back, is from real anger"

"I agree" Beckett responds "Other than being mad over the show he probably has a rock solid alibi in the bartender. How hard will it be to talk to him?"

"I will call bar services and have him come down. In the mean time have you two thought about who else might be involved?"

Castle responds "Not really"

The chief looks at this notes "I noted that his girlfriend, a …Gina Crowell, was not out in the audience at the time of the murder. I know from my days at Boston PD the lover is a good choice for a suspect"

Castle and Beckett look at one another and at the same time speak "I never thought about her"


	13. Chapter 13

Stepping out of the interrogation room and into the hallway, Castle and Beckett have a quiet conversation out of the room

"Castle, do you think Gina could even do something like this?"

"No. Absolutely not! She may be a bitch sometimes but she is not a murderer" Castle is adamant about his feelings that his ex-wife is not really capable of being involved in murdering someone other than what she publishes in his and other's murder mystery books

"Anyway, she was in the room when the play was going on so she could not have gone up on stage for that brief 20 seconds of blackout" he continues

Beckett is checking her notes "No. She was not in the room according to one of the staff. Remember she came rushing in several minute later. She had stepped out immediately after you got on stage. That was just a few minutes before the play began. That would give her the time to go backstage and be ready to attack when the lights went out and she knew in advance when that was happening"

Castle is a little stunned that his ex could in fact be the killer "Kate. I am positive that Gina would never do this murder"

Beckett is not feeling real good about her husband's strong feelings about his ex-wife

"Castle, why are you defending her so strongly? She was not in the theatre when the murder happened. Where was she then?"

"We need to find her and ask"

Kate reacts to Castle's response "You still have feelings for her, don't you?"

He reaches over to Kate "No! No way. I just know her and it is not in her DNA to do something so heinous"

"Not in her DNA? Huh! Or have you been out comparing her DNA?"

"Look, Kate. I just think we need to keep looking into everyone else"

"And you aren't having feelings…?"

He pulls her in for quick kiss "Absolutely not. I promise I am not suggesting that we exclude her…but I don't think this was her doing so we need to keep investigating"

His response eases her tension…

A little

"I agree…I will contact the precinct and have them start looking into the rest of the cast"

"Wait a minute, Kate. Why don't we have backgrounds run on everyone aboard the ship? Crew. Passengers. Everyone"

"The NYPD does not have the resources to do that kind of a check"

Castle smiles at his wife "No the NYPD doesn't but we know someone who does" and he looks into her eyes

It dawns on Beckett who he is referring to "OH, NO, we are not calling…"

Castle interrupts her statement "It is the FBI's jurisdiction and they have all the data mining resources. Their computers are programmed to do the type cross checking we need"

Beckett purses her lips and takes a deep breath before commenting "Fine, but I will contact them. I am the police and not you"

Castle laughs inside thinking his wife is still jealous of how he reacted to all the FBI's equipment. All their data matrix and cross referencing capabilities. Her words form several years before 'How fast it collates information'

Beckett turns and walks back into the security director's office "Chief Owens, can you get me a complete list of everyone on the ship? Both guests and crew along with their personal information and anything else that might connect one of them to our victim?"

Looking up from his desk, the security officer responds "In what format? CSV OK?"

"That will be perfect and we need Gina Crowell's room number"

The chief looks at his computer screen and gives the information to Beckett "Detective, she did not enter her room last night after the play. Her key has not been used since about 3:00 PM yesterday"

Kate looks at Castle "Still think she is not guilty?

"No. We just need to find her and get some answers"

"Answers. Right" Kate states firmly then tells the security chief that she needs to go to the communications room and contact DC and get Agent Shaw and her team doing the necessary background searches

Chief Owens directs her to the room and calls ahead to advise them to allow her access to the systems to transmit data

/\/\/\/\/\

After Beckett contacts Shaw and gives her the request, Agent Shaw tells Beckett that she will let her team begin the work and that she is personally flying to Puerto Rico to follow up on the investigation

Returning to the main deck Castle and Beckett are walking across the promenade deck on their way toward Gina's room when they see all the early morning sun worshipers have begun arriving and are getting ready to spend hours exposing their bodies to the blazing rays of old sol

Castle is noting several of the women's outfits are barely there. In fact he runs into a chair instead of paying attention as to where he is walking

Kate stops and turns to her husband "Do I need to ban you from the main deck for the rest of the cruise?"

"UH…NO?" he responds

"Then put your eyes back in your sockets or they will get sunburned"

He drops his head and continues walking

Once they enter the corridor and are moving toward Gina's room they see a doorway open in front of them and a somewhat disheveled Gina Crowell steps out a cabin that is not her own. She is still in the dress she had worn the night before but she is definitely less put together than last night

As they are getting closer, Kate is looking over the dress carefully. There is no indication of blood spatter anywhere on her clothes

"Who's room is she coming out of? It's not hers" Castle wonders

"Well, let's just go ask" Beckett responds firmly

"Ms. Crowell" she speaks using her best detective voice

Gina halts in her movement away "Oh! Hello Kate?" she answers nervously "What? What are you doing here?"

"I was just going to ask you the same thing"

Just at Beckett makes her comment the cabin door opens and a tall handsome man, covered only in a towel, steps out holding one of Gina's shoes. He halts abruptly when he sees the congregation in the corridor "Oh, sorry…I just…"

"You forgot this" he holds out his hand and gives Gina her lost stiletto.

She takes it from him and the embarrassment is evident all over her face "I will call you later?"

Gina looks over to her ex husband and his wife "I suppose an explanation is in order"

"I would say so" Castle responds before his wife can

"I…we…I…uh listen Rick. That man is Jess and he and I have been seeing one another for a year"

"What about Claude Wisdom? I thought he was your boyfriend?"

There is a moment's pause "He is not my boyfriend. I am just his companion to some of these fancy events. He is not my type"

"Then why did you go out with him?"

"He needed business credibility. You see…I am not his type either"

"You mean he is…?" Castle questions

"Yes. He has a boyfriend in the city. I just am window dressing"

"So why are you doing that if it is not romantic?"

A laugh leaves her mouth "Do you know what kind of parties these multimillionaires attend?"

"Where were you last night when the murder took place?" Beckett asks

Gina's face turns red again "In the back hallway with Jess. You can ask him. When I heard the commotion, I went back inside"

"So you would have no reason to kill Wisdom" Castle comments while looking at Kate

Gina responds "No. None whatsoever"

Kate glares back at her husband "Shut up" and she storms off toward their own suite

When they arrive back in the cabin and enter their room, they are surprised to see the cabin steward is still in the bedroom of the cabin but he is looking at the murder board.

Castle speaks up "Hey Carlos"

The man jumps and turns around "Oh, hello Mr. Castle, Mrs. Castle…I was just looking… um…just trying to understand this" he points at the wall of paper

Kate walks fully into the room "We put all the clues to a murder on the board, or in this case the wall. Then we moves notes around and try to determine why the victim was killed and by whom"

"I see" he responds "Well, I have finished the room and I will leave you. Thank you" the man exits the cabin quickly

Kate turns to walk back into the living room but Castle stops her just inside the bedroom door "Kate can I ask you something?"

"Yeah"

"Were you really jealous when I defended Gina?"

She looks up at her husband "Maybe just a little"

He wraps his arms around her "You have nothing to be jealous of Kate"

She lays her head down on his chest "I know. But you were with her before me and…"

"Hey, do not compare yourself to anyone else. Kate, you are the greatest thing that ever happened to me"

"Really? She mumbles into his shirt

"Yeah, really"

There is a moment's pause "I love you Kate"

She hums "Back at ya"

She looks up from his chest "I wonder how long it will be before we hear from Shaw with some information for us?"

"I don't know. Why?"

"Because if it will be a while, we need to find something to kill a little time"

Rick has a gleam in his eyes "You have something in mind?"

"I think I have just the answer for that"


	14. Chapter 14

The telephone on the bedside table rings. An arm reaches out from under the sheets and tries to locate the instrument and finally grabs the handset and picks up the receiver and pulls it beneath the sheets.

A mumbling voice answers "Castle"

"No. No, you did not disturb us, we were just taking a nap"

He feels an arm slink around his stomach and a naked body presses herself up against his back and pulls tight

He listens a brief moment on the phone then his voice rises "REALLY? Are you kidding me? We will be right down"

Castle hangs the phone back on the cradle and starts to get up. He pushes the sheet off but the arm locked around him is not letting go

"Don't get up. Stay in bed" she purrs

"Kate. We have a suspect. And I mean a strong suspect. I think this is the one"

She release him and props herself on her elbow "Who?"

"He didn't say. Get dressed. Chief Owens said he has a report that tells us everything and we will go down and find out" and Castle jumps out of bed and begins pulling his clothes on

He can hear a groan coming from Kate as she also moves off the bed and begins looking around for her clothes

She is searching the floor not finding what she is looking for "Castle, where's my bra?" Then as she looks up to the TV mounted near the ceiling "And how did my panties end up on the top of the TV?"

Rick takes a quick look around the room trying to remember exactly in what order things happened "Oh I think your bra is in the living room"

"Great" Kate comments as she walks out of the room. She returns a few seconds later carrying the item of underwear "it was on top of the coffee maker. My bra smells like a cappuccino now"

He pulls her in "And the rest of you still smells like cherries"

She closes her eyes and Rick can feel the unspoken "Hum" from her lips

She pulls back from his chest then looks at the mentioned item of underwear "I guess I will just have to go without my bra until we get back home"

She can hear Castle almost gag when she says that "OH you will do no such thing, Katherine Beckett"

"Or until I can wash this one"

She snuggles up to her husband again and because of her current state of undress he almost stops breathing

That is not helping" He pulls back "We better get going. Put that on and you can wash it later" pointing at her bra

"OK" she almost giggles at him and turns toward the bathroom to go brush her teeth and finish dressing

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

After getting dressed, in record, time the currently very satisfied couple arrives at the security director's office.

They walk into the room where they find Chief Owens reading over an e-mail attachment he had received from the FBI. When he hears the pair enter he looks up from his desk

"What do you have Chief?" Beckett asks

He is still looking down as he states "Your FBI contact are very helpful"

Chief Owens looks up then looks around at both Castle and Beckett then looks around them "I thought I smelled coffee"

The two look at one another and almost break out laughing

"I guess not" The director points to the document in front of him "I am not a homicide detective like you, but this looks like a motive for murder to me"

He flips the pages to the front "There is an active lawsuit filed against our victim for wrongful death and the plaintiff in the case is on board this ship"

Castle and Beckett look to each other then beck to the chief "Who filed the lawsuit? Beckett questions

Looking down at the paper again "A Brett Edwards"

The room suddenly becomes quite chilled as Kate is absorbing the name "Did you say Brett Edwards?"

Looking at the pages once more. Owens continues "Yes a Brett Edwards filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Claude Wisdom for the death of his wife on behalf of himself and two minor children"

Castle asks the obvious question "What is the claim?"

"It seems his wife was killed at a construction site when a steel beam fell on her while she was walking down the street. The claim is that Wisdom, thru his investment company, used poor quality lower tier sub contractors with the knowledge and forethought that many had issues. Specifically that the steel erection company being hired had a reputation for problems and a long history of accidents on their projects"

"May I see that?" Rick reaches out his hand and Owens hands the file to him

Kate has not spoken and seems to be in shock. She finally speaks "I know Brett, or rather knew him back in the day. We grew up close by"

"Detective, do you think he could do this? Murder Mr. Wisdom?"

She shakes her head "No. Absolutely not"

Castle turns his head toward Beckett "Absolutely Not? Sounds like what I said and you but you didn't believe me either?"

Beckett just glares at Castle then asks "What else does the lawsuit say?" she knows her husband is a speed reader

Rick begins giving the information "There have been depositions taken and Wisdom is claiming no knowledge of the short comings of the contractor, yet there are e-mails from his office telling his superintendent to gloss over any OSHA citations…and there are missing inspection reports on the cable and the hoisting mechanism that are required by law"

The security chief chimes in "It sounds like this Wisdom guy was hiding a giant liability"

Castle continues "And Wisdom claimed that the victim was walking under a sidewalk cover that was closed off during the hoisting and that she was at fault for her own death"

"Really" Kate asks

"That is the claim, yet witnesses, at the time, say the sidewalk was open and not closed off as Wisdom testified and there were no warning or danger signs posted"

Beckett looks off and down like she is thinking before asking "How big is the lawsuit?"

"The claim is for 30 million dollars including loss of income, she was a partner at Brinks and Edwards investments and was making a large income plus mental stress, loss of affection, trauma for the children losing their mother at a young age and then there is the negligence claim that, if it is proven, is triple damages…"

Kate finishes the thought "That brings the suit to almost 100 million dollars"

Castle is looking at his wife when they both speak in unison "That is motive for murder"

They break a quick case of love eyeballs when Kate turns to Chief Owens "Can we send someone to get Mr. Edwards?"

Owens responds "I already have someone heading that way"

Thanks chief" Castle responds as he and Beckett walk back into the corridor to wait for the suspect to arrive

"So Beckett. Old boyfriend?"

"No Castle. I told you that he was my first kiss. Maddie and I fought over him back in 9th grade. Typical teenage hormones stuff. We never did anything else"

"But you did have the hots for him at the time?"

Kate looks up to her husband with a smile breaking on her face "Is this you being jealous?"

"Answer the question, Kate. Did you have the hots for him?"

A tiny chuckle leave her mouth "No. But I did have a major crush on him…so not the same" and she again leans into her husband and kisses him then leans into his ear "Any way, you are a much better kisser".

Just as she lowers herself back off her toes the person in question, along with a security officer, comes around the corner

Pointing to the temporary interrogation room, the officer tells Brett to go in and sit down

Edwards sees Castle and Beckett standing in the corridor "Kate. What is this about? I was pulled away from my kids and brought down here. What is going on?"

Beckett looks at her husband and the pair enter the room and close the door

Beckett is having to struggle a little in putting her interrogation face on but she must do this

"Mr. Edwards, have you been advised of your rights?"

"My rights? What are you asking Kate? Am I a suspect in something?"

"Yes Brett! You are"

"Suspect in what?"

"The murder of Claude Wisdom. The man you hold responsible for the death of your wife"

* * *

 **We must be getting close?**

 **OR ARE WE?**


	15. Chapter 15

The accusation of the murder of the man he holds personally responsible for the death of his wife brings Brett back down to Earth very quickly

"Kate, I did not do this. I did not kill him…"

Castle interrupts the sentence "I believe Detective Beckett is the proper usage of her name at this moment"

Kate looks at Rick and believes she can see a little hint of emerald green showing from inside his eyes but she also knows that at this juncture. It is best for professionalism to prevail

"OK. Detective Beckett. But I still did not kill him" Brett is adamant that he is innocent "In fact I did not know it was Wisdom until after the play was stopped and someone mentioned the man's name. I just thought he was a hired actor playing the butler"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. But I would not kill him. I couldn't kill anyone"

"Brett, I know suddenly losing someone you love is a terrible thing to have happen and emotions will sometimes prevail instead of logic"

"No. No I did not do that. There is no way I would do that and endanger what is left of my family. My kids are already having to grow up without their mother. I would never do anything deliberately that would leave my children without a father too"

"Your statement makes sense except sometimes our emotions become so strong that even reasonable people will do unreasonable things" Castle responds to Edward's response

Kate is looking at the field notes from interviews taken in the theatre immediately after the murder "And Brett, According to the notes, you were not in the room when the lights went out or when they came back on"

"I uh…I stepped out after the opening information that Mr. Castle delivered. My team planned for each member to be given certain duties. It was my assignment to take notes about what was said about the players. Since we were told we could not record the play and we had to pretend we were actually at a murder scene taking notes. I went out into the lobby and filled out my notepad from my scratch notes"

"So your alibi is that you were in the lobby of the theatre making notes" Castle asks

"Yes. I had made quick scribbles and then while it was still fresh on my mind, I went out and wrote up my notes"

Beckett asks "Did anyone see you?"

"UH…probably. I was not paying any attention to anyone else out there"

"Brett, I am going to have to detain you until we can verify your story because right now you are our best suspect"

Castle and Beckett stand to walk out

"Kate. I promise, I did not do this" he is almost pleading

"Brett, if you are innocent, there will be proof, but if not…"

He drops his head "I understand"

Out in the corridor again Beckett tells the security officer that she wants Brett Edwards held for the time being

Rick and Kate move back out of the security area and into the corridor when a thought hits him "Kate?"

"Hum?" she responds

"Where did the knife come from?"

"What?"

"The knife! That was a butcher knife. That is not an eating utensil that would even be placed on a table in the main dining room, let alone on the stage"

Right…all the knives and forks on the table on stage were props, not even real" Kate reacts

"Do you think someone brought it with them on the boat? That would be premeditated"

"No, remember we all went through security and metal detectors when we arrived and the luggage was screened ahead of time. No one could get a knife like that on board"

"So where did it come from?" He asks

"And how could Brett or Gina or any of the other passengers get a hold of a weapon like that?"

"It had to come from one of the main kitchens" Castle ponders

There is a brief pause in the theory building and then the pair both state at the same instant

"The killer is one of the crew"

Castle is looking in his wife's eyes and he just wants to grab her and drag her off but he is positive that is not a good idea at the moment

Kate breaks the eyeball lock "Let's go ask Chief Owens if he can check and see if any of the kitchens have reported a large butcher knife missing"

"Good idea" Rick responds

The couple walk back into Owens' office "Chief did any of the kitchens report a missing knife? Specifically a large butcher knife?" Beckett asks

"I have not read any incident reports for almost a day. I have been focused on the murder" He looks in his in-basket where he pulls out several pages of documents "Let's just have a look" and he begins reading over the papers in front of him

He stops about 5 pages in "Here we go" he separates the page from the rest "The Seaside Dining room kitchen reported that one of their 10 inch knives went missing sometime early yesterday afternoon. It belonged to the sous-chef"That is before the play" Castle comments. He looks back to the security chief "Can we check the murder weapon and confirm that it is your missing knife?"

"I will do that right now" and Owens stands and moves to the door

Kate looks at Rick "But it is just a butcher knife. I am sure there are a multitude of them on the ship. All just alike"

The chief stops and turns back to the couple. "Actually, there are several of the cooks and chiefs that bring their own knives…"

Kate finished the thought "That means that this could be s special knife if the chef can identify it"

"Exactly" Owens responds

The three exit the office and go to the storage area where they have secured the evidence. They locate the knife in question and Kate is examining it carefully while it is still in the plastic bag where it was placed immediately after it was removed from the victim by the doctor. It matches exactly the description given by the chef

"Chief, can you call the chef, have him come down here, and confirm that this is his knife?" Beckett asks of the security officer

"Of course" He turns and walks back down the hall and into his office to call the kitchen manager to send the possible owner to come identify the missing blade

Castle is looking at the weapon closely "Kate, remember that the doctor said it looked like whoever used this cut himself on the shank of the blade close to the handle?"

"Yeah"

He points at the back edge of the blade where there is obviously dried blood "Whoever did this will have a cut. Either on the back of his little finger or the front of this index finger depending on which way the blade was used to stab the victim"

"Castle, follow me" Kate starts back in the direction of the holding cell.

When they arrive she asks Brett to come to the bars. He stands and moves closer to Rick and Kate

"Brett, show me your hands" She directs him

He seems confused but does as asked

She then directs him "Flip your hands over"

Again he does as told

Kate looks at Rick with a question on her face "I agree" Castle comments without her even asking the question

"Wait here Brett" Beckett turns and moves quickly to Owens' office

Brett Edwards is looking at the now exiting Beckett "I'm locked in a cell. How would I wait anywhere else?"

Beckett returns moments later holding the key. She opens the door "Brett, you may leave"

"So you don't think I killed Wisdom?"

Castle answers the question "We are pretty sure it was NOT you"

Castle and Beckett leave the security office and head back up to the main decks. In the elevator Beckett starts up "I wish we had some way to determine if some of the crew were on stage when the play was happening. I mean other than those who belonged there"

Castle seems to be thinking "Kate, remember the pictures I downloaded from Sara Green?"

She smiles up at her husband "Yeah. Where are they?"

"In our cabin. On my laptop"

"Then let's go check them out"

The pair waste no time in getting back to their room. When they enter the cabin they see that the steward is finishing up on his duties

"Hello Carlos" Beckett speaks up

He actually seems surprised the couple have arrived "Mrs. Castle" then look at Rick "Mr. Castle…just finishing up on my cleaning. I will be leaving now" and he moves out of the room

As soon as they are alone Castle goes and opens his laptop and begins scanning the images from Sara's camera.

As they scan the photos backwards to the beginning, Kate notices the pictures seem to begin on her arrival on the ship. There are the usual images of the ship, her cabin, the dock as they pulled away

The pictures also include her travelling companions with a number of them including Triple D causing Kate to chuckle

Then the pictures show the scavenger hunt with several photos of the antics of the game. Including an event that brings a laugh from Kate.

Sara took pictures of Joy taking her bra off and the resulting popped eyes of the males in the room but also there is even a photo of Kate holding her own up to her husband. This is when Castle realizes just what a shocked look he had on his face when she did this

"I need to delete this" Castle tries to remove the image from the computer

Kate slaps his hand "You will do no such thing" then she leans into him "I really enjoyed doing that to you and I want the memory"

She sees him soften "OK"

"But we need to check the photos from the play" and Kate starts scrolling from picture to picture not stopping for long.

As they scan from the first to the images taken just before the blackout the face of a person appears behind the rear curtain. A person who did have business on the stage,

But what they also see is there is another person on the stage and that person is holding a butcher knife

* * *

 **I am getting close to finishing this one. One more chapter then a really sweet Epilogue will follow**  
 **I need some inspiration for more stories in this series. If you have an idea of what you might like me to do, PM me and I will see if I can come up with something**

 **Thanks to all my readers and especially reviewers**


	16. Chapter 16

Castle and Beckett have returned to their room but not before arranging another ship to shore e-mail to Agent Jordan Shaw to get some confirming information from her about the person of interest in the murder of Claude Wisdom

As soon as they arrive back in the cabin, Beckett goes into the bathroom, removes her bra and washes it in the sink. She had grown a little tired of people asking if she had coffee. She hangs the wet item up on the shower bar to dry and returns to the living room where Castle is waiting for her

While waiting for the information to arrive, they sit on the couch in the living room and turn on the television and for the first time since beginning the cruise and are watching an information program describing the amenities on the ship and the special events scheduled for the remainder of the cruise.

They sit quietly wrapped into each other when an advertisement comes on about the formal night scheduled for the evening after they sail away from San Juan and toward the Virgin Islands. That will be tomorrow

"Kate, that's tomorrow night"

She responds softly "Yeah"

"After we arrest our suspect and turn him over to the FBI, it will be so nice to be able to actually enjoy the rest of our cruise"

"Yeah" again is her quiet answer

Castle leans his face to the crown of her head "Is everything OK? You seem distracted"

"Yeah…I just have been thinking how, even out on the ocean, we seem to spend half of our time chasing murderers"

"You know that it was a murder that brought us together in the first place"

"We can't seem to get away from murders even on our first vacation together. We have spent a lot of time investigating the killing"

He slides his hand up her arm then onto her neck making her turn her head and look at him "And the rest of it we have spent making love"

He sees her smile pulling up on the edges of her lips "True"

When the phone call comes to the room, neither is inclined to answer, but they know to be able to close the case they must have the information

Castle reaches for the phone and takes the call confirming the information they were expecting. Castle turns his wife toward him and kisses her then takes hold of his wife and starts pulling her up to a standing position "we got him"

"Then let's go finish this" she heads to the door of the cabin now pulling her husband behind her "don't forget the laptop"

/\/\/\/\/\/\

When they arrive at the theatre, Castle and Beckett move to the security director and take the paperwork he brought for them. They flip over the documents and both can be seen to smile

Beckett speaks first "It is him"

Castle turns to Chief Owns "will you gather everyone else here and let's just have a little reveal with all the players"

"I already have my men bringing everyone. They should all be here in about ten minutes"

"Thank you chief" Beckett responds

Castle and Beckett walk to the center of the stage "This is so great Kate"

She looks at him "Yeah it is"

"You seem a little excited" Castle comments

"So do you"

"I am always excited to close a case with you" he retorts then looks back to the front

"Oh I just noticed that you no longer smell like an espresso" he chuckles

She is also looking directly to the front "that's because I washed out my bra while we were in the cabin"

He has a puzzled look "How did you get it dry that fast?"

She still looks forward "Oh I didn't. It is still drying back in the room"

Rick almost chokes again "You mean…you don't…you're not wearing…?"

She is having so much fun with him "It was still wet so, no, I am not wearing one"

Castle is once more checking to make sure no one can tell she is without. He tries to move in front of her but she pushes him aside "I need to see what is happening"

"Yes, but no one else needs to see anything"

She touches his face making him look into her eyes "Rick. There is no way I would expose myself to anyone except you. I am just having so much fun doing this. So don't worry about that. OK?"

Their love lock is broken by the sound of the security officer arriving escorting several people including crew and passengers.

The passengers include Sara Green Joy Mason, Brett Edwards and of course Gina Crowell. He lines them up on stage on either side of the table where the murder took place. then steps away looking at Castle and Beckett with an evil smile on his face

The assistant cruise director, Joey Lawson speaks first "I understand you have a suspect in the murder of Mr. Wisdom"

Kate responds "Yes. Yes we do"

Rick continues "Thanks to one of the players, Sara Green" Rick indicates the woman "we were able to review some photographs that were taken just moments before the blackout on stage and he subsequent murder"

Beckett adds the next bit of infomration "In those pictures we noticed the persons back stage behind the rear curtain and we looked for someone who did not belong"

The large screen has been turned on and the pictures from the laptop appear. "The first images were taken as the cast arrived on stage then they move around as the play begins"

The next image is brought up showing a man has arrived behind the curtain. The assistant cruise director Joey Lawson

"Beckett speaks concerning this photo "Mr. Lawson. I believe that that is you?"

He stutters a moment then answers "Yes. That is me. But I am the assistant cruise director. I am authorized on stage"

Castle responds as the next image appears "Yes. You are allowed, but who is your companion?" pointing at the image showing part of a person's arm holding the butcher knife

"I uh…I don't know. I did not see anyone beside me"

Beckett asks her question next "You say that you did not see anyone next to you?"

"No"

The slide advances and you can see Joey saying something to the person with the knife "If you didn't see him why were you talking to him?"

Castle is ready to deliver the final punch "Joey, we know everything. The FBI investigated and we have all the evidence as to why you and your brother in law murdered Claude Wisdom"

"My what? What are you talking about?"

Beckett closes "Joey. You are the brother in law of Carlos Cabrera who was our cabin steward. You married his sister, Maria. Your family were all living in a rent controlled apartment building that was bought by Wisdom's investment company. He tore the apartment building down to build a high rise office building and your entire family was put out on the street. Right?"

They look offstage where security is bringing Carlos in. Chief Owens confirms "He has a cut on his little finger that matches the blood drop on the knife blade"

"Carlos, you were a little too interested in the murder board that Castle and I set up in the room. Every time we came in, you were looking at it causing us to be a little suspicious. So we had a background search done on you. That is when we linked you and Joey together"

Castle continues "We had security check cameras and the afternoon the knife went missing. You were in the kitchen. That was a little off since you really had no need to be there"

Beckett finishes the thoughts "So. On behalf of the FBI, I am placing both of you under arrest for the murder of Claude Wisdom. You will be turned over to the authorities later tonight when we arrive in Puerto Rico"

The two men are escorted off the stage and down to the holding area by the security staff

Castle turns to his wife "Another criminal off the streets"

She laughs "Or in this case off the sea"

As they turn to walk back out they encounter Castle's neighbor, Sara Green "Hey Rick, Kate. That was fantastic"

"We have you and your pictures to thank for that" Kate responds

Sara seems excited "Oh, listen I want you to meet someone" she looks across the audience where a man is standing "That is Brett Edwards. We met here on the ship. He is from New York and…"

Kate responds "Brett and I were school mates"

"So you know his story. He has two of the cutest kids I have ever seen. He is a widowed like me and…"

Sara is just rambling when Brett finally walks up "Hello Kate. Rick" he looks at the couple "Sara, I need to go see about my children"

"Great. I am ready" she turns to the Castle's "See you two around" and she moves away with a bounce in her step

"Looks like this might actually be the love boat after all" Castle comments

Kate looks at her husband and wraps her fingers into his and begins pulling him "Let's go back to our room and verify that"

* * *

 **Time to close this one out. There is a very sweet epilogue coming**


	17. Epilogue

EPILOG

The 'Dress UP Night' aboard ship is tonight. Kate is honestly worried about her attire for the evening. She feels like she did not bring an appropriate dress for the festivities but Rick has tried to alieve her fears with his obvious approval of her dress for the evening

Kate looks at the dress she packed for this night and emotions flow all over her insides. She thinks about the original purchaser and wearer of the dress. Even all those years ago, her mother had exquisite taste and although over a decade has passed the dress is still very beautiful and will be enhanced even more by the beauty of the wearer tonight

She thinks about how her mother would dress when her and her dad would go out for the evening. Her mother was a beautiful and sexy woman. Jim Beckett was always proud to be seen with his wife, Johanna Beckett.

This is exactly the same way that Richard Castle is proud to be seen with his wife and their daughter, Katherine Beckett

Kate looks at the dress before talking it from the hanger and slipping it over her head and allowing it to fall gracefully over her body. She pulls the halter straps up across her breasts and up to her shoulders and ties the straps behind her neck. She stands back looking at the overall appearance. The low cut back. The V-neck front. The above the knee hem exposing her long graceful legs

She puts on a pair of black 4 inch heels making her almost as tall as her husband and making her legs look even more fantastic

When she steps out of the bedroom and into the living area, where her husband is waiting, she believes he looks as if he has stopped breathing…and he has

He walks up to face his wife. He takes her hands into his own "Kate. Even though we have been married over six months and I have seen every inch of you, I am still amazed that you can take my breath away"

She leans into him and gives him a gentle kiss "Thank you"

As they step out of their cabin and begin their journey to the dining room with plans for later in the lounge for an evening of drinks and dancing, she feels Castle's eyes piercing into her very soul

When they step into the elevator to travel up to the main deck, Rick turns into Kate and puts his arms around her "Kate. I Love You"

"Rick, I Love you too. More than you will ever know"

/\/\/\/\/\/\

After a nice evening meal with all the guests dressed in their best, Rick and Kate walk out on the deck to enjoy a moment of fresh air before moving to the lounge to complete their date. They stand at the rail with Castle behind her holding her gently to himself

"This is magical" Kate comments into the night turning her head to him "I am so glad you made me believe in magic"

They move into the Starlight Lounge for a few drinks and some dancing. The music selections for the evening are romantic slow songs.

Rick pulls Kate to the dance floor and the two spend several selections just pressed into one another as the soft selections create an air of seduction

When they finish their last dance, Rick asks Kate if she wants another glass of wine. But she looks at her husband before declining "No actually. I want to be completely sober so I can remember every beautiful detail of what will be happening when we return to our cabin"

That is all it takes to convince Rick it is time to call it a night

With the evening festivities closing for the couple, they has begun their slow walk to the solitude of their cabin. With the ever beautiful Katherine at his side, snuggled into him with her head leaning on his shoulder softly, he is having trouble keeping his hands to himself and not just push her into the nearest wall and have his way with her. But he does know that that would cause a bit of a problem with the other passengers and crew, but he just wants her so badly right now he is almost willing to face the consequences of that action

"What's the matter Castle?" she asks in the sexiest voice he believes he has ever heard come from her

"You" he barely responds

"I'm a problem?" she just pulls harder on his arm pressing her lithe body into him harder and making him want her even more

"The problem is we are out here in the corridor and not in the room…In the bed…Naked wrapped around each other"

"OH" she speaks softly "I guess we need to hurry every chance we get then"

It is with a large amount of difficulty on both of their parts that they finally manage to arrive at their cabin

Once the cabin door is closed with the 'Do Not Disturb' sign still on the inside of the room handle, Rick pulls Kate to his chest and begins to start working on her neck

"Easy tiger" she chides him "You stay out here and change" pointing at the living room "and I will go in there" She points at the bedroom "and then you can wait for me to call you in"

She does not have to repeat herself and he quickly obliges and she moves to the bedroom and closes the door

After removing his clothes, Castle decides a good offense is better than a great defense. He leans on of the door jam and speaks in the direction of the bedroom where his wife should be waiting "I know one thing Kate! I don't deserve having you in my life"

That was not what she expected to hear from him "what do you mean Rick?"

"Kate, you are the greatest thing to ever happen to me. You are an amazing woman. A fantastic cop. A tremendous investigator and you can decipher clues better than anyone I have ever known. And you are the sexist woman I have ever met"

This is when he hears an odd sound coming from the bedroom.

He is not positive about the noise but it sounds vaguely like his wife's voice, but she is making a sound more like a low groan.

Rick is positive that she must be doing something with her hair or makeup, what little she uses, and it is irritating her. He tries to ignore the rumbling for several minutes when he finally decides that he needs to open the door so he can look in the bedroom to see what is happening. She might need his help with something

As he pulls the door open and peers around the doorway from the living room to the actual sleeping area, he starts his questioning "Kate? Is everything OK?...all…are… right…all…I…are you…alright?"

His words are completely jumbled when he discovers the source of the sounds his wife is making.

Katherine Beckett-Castle is lying in the bed, propped on one elbow, wearing a very short, very sexy, extremely sheer gown leaving nothing to the imagination.

There is a bowl on the bed filled with berries and whipped cream. She is holding a strawberry with some whipped cream on top and has it between her lips. She is gently nibbling on the edges and her lips are covered in sweet cream.

She looks up to her now completely flustered husband "I'm fine…I just got a little hungry waiting for you and decided I needed a bite of something"

He chokes trying to get his heart restarted "UH…I…was just…I…you…"

"Rickey, you seem distracted. Are you hungry too? You seem…I don't know. Do you see something you would like to nibble on?"

"Too?"

He tries to calmly walk from the doorway then back across toward the main entrance. His movements are mostly stumbling however.

When he finally gets to the main cabin door, he takes the 'Do Not Disturb' sign from the hanger, and places it on the hallway side of the hatch. He closes the door, sets the security lock, and flips off the main overhead light in the living room as he disappears around the corner back to the bedroom where he closes that door.

Moments after the door closes, Kate can be heard to let out a soft moan and then in a breathy voice "Castle! Please promise me we will keep doing this?"

"Always!"

* * *

 **Here you go**

 **Until The Next Murder**


End file.
